I thought I'd report an incidence that happened to me this evening. Many of us have occasions to use low temp silver solder commonly known at STA=BRITE. I have used it for probably most of the last forty years. I only use it where I want a little extra strength over normal 50-50 solder. I was soldering wheel pants mounting plates, that I fabricated, to the aluminum gear axles. I had both axles and the plates jigged up and ready for solder. I grabbed the flux bottle and attempted to place a small drop of flux on the joint. I didn't want to flood the part with flux, so I moved a little closer to see how much was flowing onto the part. I squeezed the bottle a little more and the bottle explodes like a raw egg, spraying flux onto my chin and throat and glasses. As I jumped back the rest of the fluid dumped mostly on my left thigh pants leg. I grabbed some paper towel and blotted most of the mess and then ran to the garden hose and flushed my face and arm. Next was a trip to the laundry room where I disposed of my clothes in the laundry tub and headed for the shower to get rinsed off. After getting cleaned up and a change of clothes, I return to the shop. I checked to see that I cleaned the mess us as best as possible, I got another bottle of flux. I thought I'd check the bottle before getting back at my project. The second bottle also blew up, throwing fluid on me again and all over the floor. Yeah, I know, doesn't he learn the first time?? Believe me, I had put very little pressure on this bottle. I had a bigger mess to clean up, after I hit the garden hose, laundry room and shower for a second time. Now in another set of pants and shirt, I returned to the shop and cleaned up the floor and wiped things down with water and baking soda. Then I picked up the third and last bottle of flux and dumped it into the garbage can. Third times the charm isn't apparently for me!!
I don't know how old these bottles were, but probably 6 or 7 years, maybe more. I know we modelers can collect some pretty old materials during our modeling careers. I use up the solder way before the flux is gone. The bottles were white with red lettering. The second bottle completely came apart in my hand. The floor looked like I had dropped a small egg and it broke into little pieces. Luckily I was wearing glasses and averted a trip to the ER. One last tip. I don't store the solder around the bottle like it comes from the factory. I keep the flux bottle in an used medicine bottle and keep the solder separately in a sandwich bag. The bottle will leak and corrode the solder, so keep them separate.
I just might discontinue using silver solder or at least try using it with regular soldering paste. I know I will be a little gun shy before buying more STA-Brite.
Topic: Safety Alert!! (Read 1111 times)
