[Elecraft] putting solder wire in your mouth ( : o [ [ [ DON'T

[David Cutter]

The first and last time I held solder in my teeth was many harvests ago and 
I live to tell this tale:  I got the shock of my life which threw me across 
the room leaving me quivering wreck and might easily have killed me.  I 
later learned about "leakage current."  Appliances over here are allowed up 
to 7.5mA of leakage current (from memory of BS3456 pt 101) for a heater 
circuit.  The maximum current allowed to enter the mouth, broken skin or 
internal is (memory?) 40uA and is regarded as "heart attached" (UL544, BS?). 
That's why dentists use mechanically driven drills.

If you are in a position of training folk, please make it absolutely plain 
that this should never be done even with a transformer isolated soldering 
iron, the risk is horrendous.  Some people get away with, others may not be 
so fortunate and it's nothing to do with solder poisoning which takes years, 
this can be fatal in the blink of an eye.

David
G3UNA

>> Ah...the fun days when nobody thought about holding solder in their
>> hands (or mouth) and intentionally inhaling solder fumes (tendrils)
>> cuz it smelled so good.
>
> That was the approved soldering method....ya held the solder in your 
> teeth, so that you had an extra hand....and if you got real fancy, you 
> mounted the soldering iron so that the tip was reight in front of 
> you...that way, you could use both hands to hold the stuff that you wanted 
> to solder together.
>