Lead based solder. Has it been prohibited to no professional users?

[Wheatley]

When the firdt lot of regs arrived in 2006 (RoHS?) there was an exemption for hobby use. This is what the "Stock up on illegal substances" ad alluded to above was all about. 

 

The latest regs (REACH) ban sales to non-professional users from 2018. How you define "professional" appears to have been left to the retailer to decide. 

 

It has been banned for potable water pipework and in manufacturing electronic components for some time. I'm still using the same 100g reel I bought from Focus 25 years ago and there's loads left. 

[great central]

7 hours ago, Wheatley said:

 

 

 How you define "professional" appears to have been left to the retailer to decide. 

 

 

 

Probably opening a huge can of spaghetti here, I don't like worms, but 'professional' to me means someone gets paid for doing something. It doesn't imply they are any good at it, witness for our purposes the many 'professional' weathering jobs available on eBay. Other online sources are available.

There's also the regularly quoted photo of the 'professional' young lady, representing a 'professional' company, supposedly soldering components onto a circuit board, holding the soldering iron by the bit you most definitely don't want to be holding!

She's probably a professional in that she's being paid to pose for the photo but as for soldering.......

[Grovenor]

12 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

CPC Farnell have plenty of  leaded solder in stock, but it is a large reel (500g)

 

https://cpc.farnell.com/qualitek/60-40-nc600-0-7mm/solder-wire-60-40-nc600-0-7mm/dp/SD02116?st=solder

 

 

They have smaller quantities if you don't want a reel.

eg. https://cpc.farnell.com/multicore-solder/m3/5-core-solder-40-60-m3/dp/SD00068?st=solder

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

You could always ask a friendly plumber to slip you a length?

 

Mike.

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by Enterprisingwestern
missing word.

[polybear]

On 07/11/2020 at 08:18, hayfield said:

Whilst you must have invested quite a bit, I bet the price you paid is far lower than you would have paid as the cost of Carrs solder has rocketed 

 

Very true - if only I'd stocked up on copper clad sleeper strip at the same time....

[hayfield]

14 hours ago, great central said:

 

Probably opening a huge can of spaghetti here, I don't like worms, but 'professional' to me means someone gets paid for doing something. It doesn't imply they are any good at it, witness for our purposes the many 'professional' weathering jobs available on eBay. Other online sources are available.

There's also the regularly quoted photo of the 'professional' young lady, representing a 'professional' company, supposedly soldering components onto a circuit board, holding the soldering iron by the bit you most definitely don't want to be holding!

She's probably a professional in that she's being paid to pose for the photo but as for soldering.......

 

In days gone by the use of the word " Professional " was a sign of pure quality and mostly a member of a recognised professional body, if a person was a professional it set them above a "trades" person.

 

Paying for something to be made/built have never meant you were getting a a top quality job. However many trades people were capable of doing jobs to a professional standard

 

Now many of these professional bodies have been superseded by quangos who police the system when it goes wrong and is complained about, people like building inspectors make sure work passes a minimum standard, not about the quality of work

 

I complained about a professional's work who is a member of 2 reputable trade bodies. The most well known said they could do nothing as he was an associate member not a full one, therefore not bound by the code. The second one initially found in my favour, until he put pressure on them to change their minds.  

 

 

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Very true - if only I'd stocked up on copper clad sleeper strip at the same time....

 

The world has moved on, I now use a fraction of the stuff now than I did

[Wheatley]

Surely the definition of 'professional' is irrelevant in it's wider sense. My point was that it appears that the policing appears to have been left to retailers (it's illegal to sell it not to buy it) and they appear to be doing that by selling only to business or trade account holders. How easy it is to get a trade account I don't know, B&Q will accept sight of a business card according to their website and you can get them anywhere although you might not get very far with your stag party "Boob Inspector" one. 

Edited November 8, 2020 by Wheatley

[hayfield]

6 minutes ago, Wheatley said:

Surely the definition of 'professional' is irrelevant in it's wider sense. My point was that it appears that the policing appears to have been left to retailers (it's illegal to sell it not to buy it) and they appear to be doing that by selling only to business or trade account holders. How easy it is to get a trade account I don't know, B&Q will accept sight of a business card according to their website and you can get them anywhere although you might not get very far with your stag party "Boob Inspector" one. 

 

 

Lets get it clear.

 

Is it illegal to sell solder with lead in it ?

 

There seems quite a confusion as some post suggest its only illegal for someone doing work where water is concerned

[Free At Last]

2 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

 

Lets get it clear.

 

Is it illegal to sell solder with lead in it ?

 

There seems quite a confusion as some post suggest its only illegal for someone doing work where water is concerned

And I can't imagine a plumber would use 0.5mm 60/40 solder to sweat a joint in a water pipe.

[kevinlms]

I thought I'd posted this previously, but no restrictions in Australia. 60/40 solder is freely available anywhere.

 

Next time you or a friend is coming on holiday (whenever that might be next allowed!), buy yourself a supply to take home.

[spamcan61]

57 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

 

Lets get it clear.

 

Is it illegal to sell solder with lead in it ?

 

It is only legal to sell it to professionals, as discussed.

 

There are whole industries that are still exempt, and repair of existing products originally using tin/lead solder requires use of tin/lead so it isn't going away completely.

Edited November 8, 2020 by spamcan61

[Wheatley]

It has been illegal to use it for potable water pipework for some time. It has been illegal to use it in the manufacture of electronic goods for some time. 

 

It was illegal to sell it from 2006 but there was an exemption from for 'hobby purposes' (RoHS, presumably because we don't use that much in the grand scheme of things. )

 

It is now illegal to sell it to anyone except a professional. (REACH 2018). 

 

Edit - in the UK.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Wheatley

[Hibelroad]

Is anything legal these days ?

[Bucoops]

On 07/11/2020 at 08:18, hayfield said:

Whilst you must have invested quite a bit, I bet the price you paid is far lower than you would have paid as the cost of Carrs solder has rocketed 

 

I wondered about this - so I just checked. 2nd October 2018 Carr's 179 solder cream (the good stuff with silver in) - £29.95

 

Current price - £31

 

So not too bad really

[Hibelroad]

I did panic buy solder when the scare about it going off sale started about 10 years ago. My big reel of 145 solder is marked £25, current price is £60. 

[hayfield]

45 minutes ago, Bucoops said:

 

I wondered about this - so I just checked. 2nd October 2018 Carr's 179 solder cream (the good stuff with silver in) - £29.95

 

Current price - £31

 

So not too bad really

 

 

Bucoops

 

Poly bear said

 

A certain previous proprieter of a certain track building supplies company warned that was very soon to be the case too - and sold an awful lot of 145 and 188 as a result.  Quite a few years later (ten?) it's still available.....

 

I may be wrong but 10 + years as it sounds like it was Brian, and he was right. But the prices paid I bet 10+ years ago were half if not less

[Bucoops]

17 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

 

Bucoops

 

Poly bear said

 

A certain previous proprieter of a certain track building supplies company warned that was very soon to be the case too - and sold an awful lot of 145 and 188 as a result.  Quite a few years later (ten?) it's still available.....

 

I may be wrong but 10 + years as it sounds like it was Brian, and he was right. But the prices paid I bet 10+ years ago were half if not less

 

 

Far enough  10 years ago I was arms deep in asbestos - now THAT's a product hard to find now

[polybear]

40 minutes ago, Bucoops said:

 

 

Far enough  10 years ago I was arms deep in asbestos - now THAT's a product hard to find now

 

Try shed & garage roofs.....

[peach james]

1 hour ago, Bucoops said:

 

 

Far enough  10 years ago I was arms deep in asbestos - now THAT's a product hard to find now

Got som'o that too lying around here.

 

PS:  60/40 is available to us mere colonials- not sure if Lee's would ship to you, https://leeselectronic.com/en/category/2755-solders  is one potential colonial supplier.  If I was just looking for 63/37 or 60/40, I'd try ebay from HK...

I bought a fair wack of low melting point solders ~10 years ago, and haven't done any kit building since.  That being said, they ARE more likely to become hard to get because of their toxicity, and the limited market.

James

[spamcan61]

Plenty available on eBay, random example:-

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124341236095

[Re6/6]

On 07/11/2020 at 07:54, polybear said:

A certain previous proprieter of a certain track building supplies company warned that was very soon to be the case too - and sold an awful lot of 145 and 188 as a result.  Quite a few years later (ten?) it's still available.....

That individual told me the same (bless his cotton socks!) so I bought a 2kg roll of the stuff, not from him though. I still have the reel on the shelf. Probably there's enough for another lifetime's supply and I'm no spring chicken! 

[Bucoops]

11 minutes ago, peach james said:

Got som'o that too lying around here.

 

 

I bet  We surveyed the chemistry department of a unversity and removed a net made of pure chrysotile string.

 

Went back the next year to do a reinspection and they had bought a new one from Canada as readily available. Seems it was very useful for holding glassware whilst repairing under a flame. Can't remember if we took that one too!

[peach james]

1 minute ago, Bucoops said:

 

I bet  We surveyed the chemistry department of a unversity and removed a net made of pure chrysotile string.

 

Went back the next year to do a reinspection and they had bought a new one from Canada as readily available. Seems it was very useful for holding glassware whilst repairing under a flame. Can't remember if we took that one too!

HMCS Protecteur was an "asbestos free unit", but our gauge glass's were all in asbestos gaskets, and we had a fair supply of spiralwounds with Asbestos too...  mind, the ship had all its pipework lagged in various non asbestos materials.  Rumors have it that most of them are at least as bad for you as the Asbestos that it replaced- for example, I am well aware that glass fiber and rock wool are both not to be recommended in your lungs.  

One thing the whole asbestos thing does is it makes us look at process, and PPE for staff...
 

Here in the heating plant (as I'm retired !), we have a small quantity of Asbestos- probably the largest amount of it as an insulator is on my model loco boiler, which I strongly suspect is insulated with it, however I haven't verified.  We don't have any lagging marked as containing, but we're all cautious that it probably exists in the hidden corners.  

James

[Grovenor]

5 hours ago, Wheatley said:

It has been illegal to use it for potable water pipework for some time. It has been illegal to use it in the manufacture of electronic goods for some time. 

 

It was illegal to sell it from 2006 but there was an exemption from for 'hobby purposes' (RoHS, presumably because we don't use that much in the grand scheme of things. )

 

It is now illegal to sell it to anyone except a professional. (REACH 2018). 

 

Edit - in the UK.

Well, if its illegal to sell it then there seem to be plenty of people happy to break that law. Looking up Reach 2018 was not in the least helpful.