This fishing place I noticed, they have both, the plain lead line, or the kind with tin mixed in, for environmental reasons, I guess.

Anybody know, which would be better to hold it's shape, or they about the same. I noticed solder, always seems to have tin mixed in it, but that might be environmental to, there seems to be a lot of that going around lately, mostly when it doesn't matter, then when it really does, you can't find them.
Kerry

the one thing to remember... is that Plumbing type solder can't Contain lead at all......... And they've recently banned Lead sinkers (for fishing) over a certain weight........(I don't remember what it is at the moment)

They made a lot more out of it then needed, what is fishing sinkers going to hurt, just a way to get in a new tax I guess.

The water here used to go in 7 year cycles, before the big ships started to come in, and every seventh year we could walk out to the rock walls and get all of our leaders and sinkers we lost the previous 6 years before, but ours and everybody's else's wasn't that much, cause the water was all gone in the bay for most of that summer.

Now they claim they have no control of the water level, but it always does what the rich wants it to do, like go up when they needed it to do, for the bigger ocean going ships to run in the lakes now.

They only needed a few more feet, and it rose a few more feet, that is why they had to spend all them millions on dikes, cause now the water was pushing over the shores.

Kerry

I think they are cutting down on the lead content of sinkers and shot because waterfowl eat it and die.
I don't know whether it was a real problem or one of those percieved problems. I know lead shot has been an issue for a while. They are going to steel shot, I think.

Shaun

Yes, alot of hunters are going to steel shot for waterfowl now. I know in my home state of La. it is mandatory that you use steel shot when duck or goose hunting. Lead shot is still used by squirrel, rabbit, and dove hunters. Indeed the waterfowl eat this lead shot (Either scooping it off the bottoms of swamps or picking it out of their skins in near-miss incidents) and either die or pass it on to humans who digest their tasty flesh. Regardless we are off topic and NO amount of Pb is good for any living creature. Stick with the Tin.
Happy Modeling
Ryan

Hi

Tin is added to lead to create an alloy that has more desirable physical properties (for soldering purposes) than pure tin or pure lead.
The melting point of 100% lead (Pb) is 327°C, while that of 100% tin (Sn) is 232°C. The melting point of 63Sn-37Pb solder is 183°C - the lower temperature means less heat has to be added to the joint while soldering. As more lead is added, the melting temperature approaches that of lead and vice versa for tin.
Another useful property is that (without going into too many details) alloys, such as solder, have different melting and solidifying points. So, for example, cooling 40Sn-60Pb solder will begin to solidify at about 250°C and will be completely solidified at 183°C. The joint can still be manipulated in this region, allowing for final positioning of the parts. 60-40 solder will solidify from 186°C to 183°C, giving a more precise joint.
From an environmental point of view, lead-free solder is available; although this tends to be more expensive and harder to find than tin-lead solder.

For more info, check out these sites:
Solid-liquid phase diagrams: tin and lead
Detailed Tin-lead Phase diagram

or do a google search for phase diagrams to find out more about alloy properties.

Cheers
Ed

While on the subject...

On july 1st 2006 the RoHS derective will come into force in Europe. RoHS stands for "Restriction of use of Hazardous Substances".

This will have an effect on solder wire, because it can't contain lead anymore. Also the flux that you find in it needs to be altered.

Manufactures are now already producing tin/copper alloys to replace the existing one. Drawback, this has a melting point around 227°C where tin/lead has 180°C (on average).

So start stocking up...

Kris