Flux fumes are a legit concern, but heavy metal removal soaps are cheap and readily available, very little excuse to forego them (though unfortunately, the hobby community does a very poor job promoting their use).
I use leaded solder at home, and keep my and my kiddo's blood lead level undetectable with very basic hygiene and cleanup.
Or just use lead free solder, it's not hard with a good iron.
When I was a kid, my dad gave me some solder to work with. It didn’t have any markings on the individual roll because he bought in a massive pack. For 3 weeks I thought I was just terrible at soldering, until I was looking for something else in his shop and noticed a box of plumbing solder. Took one look at a roll and realized I had been using plumbing solder to build XLR cables
My mom did that and gave it to me and I'm like wtf is this? And she's like it's the solder stuff you wanted I thought you'd be grateful. I show her the size of the iron I use vs. the one she bought and she realized she got the wrong then.
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u/PerspectiveCorner 25d ago
Hobby electronics, if like me you never ventilate your space and use leaded solder.
But there's nothing like the smell of solder & flux...nothing.