Hi,

You lucky person!

The alloy you have is the low melting point silver solder so loved by model engineers because of its flow characteristics.

You have about 1 kg.

To you – it could be priceless. It is no longer available.

However the sale or tranfer of this alloy and others was banned in Europe from Dec 10th 2011.

Its use (if you had some) was not affected but its sale was made illegal.

It was also made illegal to give it away!

So its value is zero, but if you wish to use it, do so, but make sure you have well ventilated conditions.

regards

Keith Hale

CuP Alloys Ltd

(leading supplier of silver solder to the model engineer but not this alloy!)

If you were to accidentaly trip and drop some silver solder, whilst at the same time some loose change were to accidentaly fall from my pocket, and in the confusion that followed we accidentaly picked up objects belonging to the other person, would that be deemed illegal? Alternatively I could steal it from you after an all expenses paid night out drinking??

This is a good place to start digging into the legislation.

And here is the [old] HSE guidance.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/08/2012 21:04:13

If you want to know what the law says, look at the law. In this case, unfortunately, it was written – as these things usually are – by a creature from the planet Zog masquerading as a speaker of human language. Here it is: **LINK**

 Note the critical bit (it's in the Annex on page 4, would you believe – all the previous bit is actually just background justification) is "shall not be placed on the market". Some suppliers say they have legal advice which says this means it cannot be given away. I must say that my personal view is that giving something away is the very antithesis of placing it on the market, but if you look at the earlier EU (or EC as it then was) legislation it does indeed say:

"Placing on the market: means supplying or making available, whether in return for payment or free of charge, to a third party…"

See df">http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=oj:l:2006:396:0001:0849:endf , page 55

David

Sorry, this forum software is complete pants, it's wrecked the link again! You can find the regulation by looking at the post above mine and clicking on the 2006 link at the bottom of the page.

Edited By David Littlewood on 24/08/2012 23:52:42

Yet you still see it on fleabay "Found in grandads attic" etc;

Bob

I presume that it can be bought in France, they seem to ignore all the other regulations that do not suit them?

Edited By KWIL on 25/08/2012 10:10:47

You still can get Castolin 1802 (similar to Easyflow) without problems in Switzerland. But the German site of Castolin does not mention it…

Greetings, Hansrudolf

It would be interesting to have an opinion from an expert in EU law as to whether "placed on the market" has some implicit limitation transactions between business concerns. IOW, a gift between private individuals not involved in a relevant business might be outside its scope. After all, as Bob indicated, what happens when the owner dies?

This is the kind of arrant nonsense which is inevitable when vast sets of rules are produced by a legion of bureaucrats brought up in a Continental system (which seems to be based on the philosophy that no-one can do anything unless given permission to do it) is grafted onto a common-law based system which starts with the assumption that you are responsible for your own actions, but must take the consequences if you screw up.

David

I imagine the law is saying it's no longer legal to sell 'new' cadmium bearing solders 'commercially' in the same way that it's no longer legal for leaded solders to be used in water systems or electrical goods. Doesn't mean existing stock isn't out there and changing hands in a very minor way. If no more is produced then the supply is finite and will cease to exist after a while. It's not illegal to buy or sell antique ivory goods but it is illegal to trade in new ivory. I claim no legal knowledge but common sense would seem to suggest that trying to police pre-owned surviving stocks of cadmium solder changing hands is unenforceable and a fools errand.