I’m joining the split keyboard group by building a piantor. I have the pcbs already and they’re lead free coated and I will use lead free solder on the components.

I’m a bit worried though as I used a borrowed split and I noticed I keep touching the soldering in the microcontroller quite a bit and the build I was going for was a bare one where we just put rubber feet directly in the pcb so there’s no case or anything.

I tend to rub my eyes and bite my nails quite a bit during the day. I was wondering if it’s safe enough on lead free solder or if this is something I should completely avoid.

Any suggestions in case I should avoid it entirely. I reckon the worst place would be the top of the pcb maybe I can use some hot glue where the solder is but I have no idea if it’s hard to pull it off later if I need to review/resolder.

This is my first project and I haven’t done anything like this before, so even the flux I’m kind of unaware how to clean, solder comes with it right, do I need to wipe it somehow or use isopropyl alcohol and wipe with maybe a paper towel?

Sorry about being a complete noob. I searched around but most people are concerned about the lead solder not lead free like me.

    • @nezbyte
      link
      66 months ago

      The description says “resin core” which is a misspelling of rosin core. It is just pine tree sap that can be cleaned off if you want with alcohol with a toothbrush and then wiped with something absorbent so it doesn’t evaporate on the board and leave a haze.

      Tin, copper, and rosin sound pretty safe to me but I’m no doctor. Just try and avoid any fumes from the resin while soldering.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosin