[time-nuts] RoHS Solder

[John Green]

Interesting comments regarding. lead free solder. I was not aware of the tin
whisker problem. We went lead free here at work several years ago. I really
don't like the lead free solder we have to use on several accounts. As
mentioned, you don't get nice shiny joints. They look pretty much like cold
joints. We had to do some rework on some products and the lead free stuff
doesn't rework well at all. We ended up having several field failures. Not
good for customer relations. The processing temperatures are much higher
than with eutectic and sometimes the boards come out of the oven all brown
and crispy. Good thing most of what we make gets molded in plastic. I don't
use lead free in the lab. One of the many reasons is to keep customers from
putting engineering samples in equipment to be sold.