Lead-free solder - parts and toos that come tinned with it - effect on my projects

Lead-free solder - parts and tools that come tinned with it - effect on my projects

Hello.
I use solder with lead in it, and I just went to look for a new soldering tip, and they all are pre-tinned with lead-free solder.
I also noticed that some of the components I buy come pre-tinned, and I assume this is all lead-free too.

What effect will all this crap solder have on my projects?
Any tips on removing it?

On a side note: I wonder how much extra trash is created every year because of all the people using lead-free solder...

What effect will all this crap solder have on my projects?

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None. It's mostly tin with a tiny amount of antimony, copper and/or silver.

Any tips on removing it?

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No. Now you have the foregoing materials and some lead.

I also noticed that some of the components I buy come pre-tinned, and I assume this is all lead-free too.

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Not unless specifically indicated on the packaging. The pious and compliant purveyors of RoHS are smug and never miss an opportunity to indicate their status.

I share your dislike too, I cant get the lead free tat to solder properly either.
You still see lead solder on ebay.
I've never had problems sticking new stuff up with lead solder.
Arent new components tin plated or antimony as allready said rather than solder tinned?

Some older components had cadmium in the plating but most now are tin with a little antimony or bismuth. Of course some are plated with silver or gold.

I don't know about components, but the Plato soldering tip datasheet says, "All Plato soldering tips manufactured since January 2004 are tinned with Lead-Free solder".
I remember reading somewhere that if you mix silver solder with lead solder, it can have problems (weak joint? - i don't remember).

there are at least two different "silver solders", one is for "hard" soldering when you heat the metal red hot with a gas flame. This solder is brass based with up to 50% silver in it. Its for jewelery model steam engines etc. Then there is silver solder for "soft" soldering for electronics, this was lead and tin based with up to 10% silver added. The reason for the silver was, that High grade electronics use lumps of ceramics as the insulator with silver contacts sputtered on and the components are soldered to these silver areas. If the solder used did not contain silver the solder would dissolve away the silver into the joint and not leave any adhering to the ceramic, so the leads would just fall of.
Frank

There is an electrical grade silver solder and a mechanical grade, the latter being 60/40 I use it for soldering band saw blades together, I didnt think it'd be strong enough for that but it works.
They use some oddball stuff at work for connecting to heater elements, I couldnt find out what it is so when I need to replace one I just use nickel crimp on lugs.

I remember reading somewhere that if you mix silver solder with lead solder, it can have problems (weak joint? - i don't remember).

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There's effectively one case of serious incompatibility of "leaded" components with lead-free solder and vice-versa, that's with BGA solder balls. BGA packages have to be soldered with the same solder type. The tin coating of component terminals doesn't bring in sufficient amounts of metal to form bad alloys. Even HAL finished PCBs aren't critical, apparently. Solder tips can be simply "cleaned" by applying some solder and stripping it.

Most manufacturers have published detailed lists describing lead-free processing compatibility of their parts some years ago, they also discussed the opposite case (leaded solder with lead-free components). I'm also using old-style leaded solder wire and paste for prototyping and repair and didn't observe any mechanical/connection problems yet.