I use lead solder.
And I have my PCBs made with a lead solder finish.
I am aware that the world has moved on. I hadn't done any
electronics for some years before starting this project so when I
started to kit myself out I had a look around. I couldn't work out
what to do on the lead-free front. There seemed to be a whole
range of different tin/silver combinations with different
temperature requirements, lots of different fluxes etc. As I was
originally intending to do only a few small experiments I
eventually decided that this wasn't worth pursuing any further. In
particular I knew I would have enough problems on the electronics
front without having to worry about how good the soldering was.
Once the project started to escalate I was already hooked on lead.
I had one colleague say that it was easy to go lead free. But on
questioning it turned out he thought it was just a question of
using a higher temperature. And anyway it wasn't his problem, he'd
just specified lead free. Doing it was someone else's problem.
And I've had several other colleagues/friends say that my choice
was entirely sensible. Lead free is ok if you've a factory and/or
skilled technicians where you can control the processes. But for a
muppet at home it's hard work. And I really really really need
good solder joint reliability.
Currently I've just bought my 10th 250g reel. So 2.5kG of 60/40
tin lead solder. Once that has been finished the Megaprocessor
will contain a full kilo of lead.
This does mean that the Megaprocessor might struggle to reach the
mass market.