Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by IgorPartola 529 days ago
Lead has a boiling point of 1749 degrees C. That is at least 1200 degrees higher than your typical soldering temperature. If you use a propane torch you’ll almost touch that temp.
2 comments

Correct, but all materials have a vapour pressure so there will be a very small amount of lead vapour when soldering. Based on lead’s vapour pressure it’s in the range of a few atoms, I haven’t done the math though.

I mentioned it for completeness because someone else would if I didn’t.

Quick math shows that vapor pressure of lead at 500 degrees C is 1/7,600,000 of an atmosphere. I don’t know how to calculate the rate of sublimation but this does seem pretty negligible.
Did you ever forgot a cup of water somewhere? It fumed away after 2 weeks! All without boiling it. :-O Same applies to lead, especially if you heat it to 360 C.
I mean you can do an experiment: put a gram of lead onto a hotplate at 360C, then weigh it after 2 weeks. I would really love to see your results.