[Elecraft] Soldering Naked - Eyes

[Fred Jensen]

On 12/19/2010 2:31 PM, Craig - AE6RR wrote:
> On the serious side of this, I highly recommend wearing glasses or safety
> glasses when soldering.  On more than one occasion in the past (when radios
> had terminal strips with soldered wires) I have sprayed little blobs of
> solder on myself when removing a wire from a wrapped connection.  The wire
> strands can sometimes spring back and fling solder.  I have had to remove
> solder bits from the lens' of my glasses.
>
> Of course these days many of us need glasses to find the radio...

You beat me to it but I was going to urge the same thing.  We don't see 
many terminal strips Craig described these days, but we do solder to 
terminals on jacks, plugs, connectors, and the like, and pulling the 
wire off can spray solder back on you.  My soldering station had a 
little fine bristled brush you used to clean the tip.  I discovered that 
over time, it was spraying back molten solder in tiny little drops.  I 
wear glasses in order to find my radio, so my eyes were protected but I 
was surprised at how far out on the desk the solder went.  I replaced 
the brush with a small wet sponge.

And, while we're at it, if you're using Pb-Sn solder, wash your hands 
before doing anything with food.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011
- www.cqp.org