Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

I am sure this topic may get quite heavy, so I am hoping to avoid any politics or personal snipes...

My personal gripe is chemicals and sundries that have been ruined to meet modern health and safety controls.

At the moment electrical solder.
What utter garbage -
I have a 15 year old roll on a drum somewhere.
Never had issues with absorption into the copper wires (tinning), and joining wires together.

Not sure if it is brand specific, but after losing my old faithful reel, I had to buy a skinny plastic reel from Aldi or Lidl in a hurry.

The solder acts like molten plastic. I virtually have to mould it around the wires to joint them together.
The solder mostly cools to a dull "dry" looking finish.


Of course I use the NASA approved overlap method for maximum surface contact.

Time will tell how long the joints will last.

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One other substance that I miss is "Gencleen".
Awesome degreaser and surface cleaner - unfortunately it was VERY effective at getting you off your face with the fumes.

I vaguely remember getting high as a kite when building circuit boards at Ferranti Electronics in 1984 / 85.
My formative "Youth Training Scheme" days.
God bless the YTS.

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Other chemicals to be ruined to reduce harmful fumes are thinners, glue, and even white spirit.
All have been rendered virtually useless.

It's not just health & safety that has caused this downgrading. The reduction in "volatile organic components" (VOCs) is also supposed to be saving the planet.
Another product you now can't get is proper creosote to treat outside timber. A single coating of this would protect timber for years. All you can get these days is something called "creocote" which lasts less then a year before moss grows back onto the timber and it is unprotected from rot.

You can still buy old style solder: https://uk.farnell.com/w/c/tools-produc ... older-wire

As a general rule now, red bobbins are lead solder, green are lead-free (but not always!).
Lead-free is horrible stuff to use, needs much more heat and does not flow well, feels more like soldering with chewing gum.

Lead free is needed for ROHS compliance (pronouced rosh), so machine build boards are fine as they are set up for lead-free use. For any prototype work then I'd only ever use leaded.

vexorg wrote: ↑Mon Oct 24, 2022 10:03 am
Lead-free is horrible stuff to use, needs much more heat and does not flow well, feels more like soldering with chewing gum.

Thank God for that....
I thought it was just me, losing my touch.

I will have to seek out my proper old reel...
I cannot be dealing with lead-free junk.
Makes my soldering look like a two year old child has done it.

All the more reason to sleeve everything - to hide the rubbish-looking joints

The melting temp is usually the give away, leaded is about 180°C, lead-free tends to be over 220°C

Totally agree about lead free solder, horrible stuff luckily I'm still working my way through a 1kg reel of multicore!
Real creosote is still available for agricultural use - my mate buys it in 5 gallon drums.
I know it is now been banned for many years but we at work used to use a huge vapour cleaner which used carbon tetrachloride - wonderful for de greasing!

Alan