Should I let my pregnant wife help me populate PCBs?

drgonzo1969

drgonzo1969

Well-known member
My wife recently quit her job because it was in an unsafe neighborhood here in Chicago and there was a massive shootout right outside the restaurant and customers were injured/killed. Anyways, now my wife is in between jobs and bored. She wants to help me populate PCBs but I am a little hesitant because she is also pregnant right now and I dont know how safe it is for her to be handling resistors and capacitors. I dont know? what do you guys think? maybe ok with gloves? No big deal just wash hands and dont touch eyes or mouth? Not safe? bad idea? let me know your thoughts and opinions. Thanks for you time

edit: She wouldn't be doing any soldering haha just placing resistors and capacitors in the pcbs.
 
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I wouldn't risk her being around tools that you've touched after handling solder, it might have an effect.
It should be ok for her to drill enclosures and mount hardware though, in another room away from fumes.
Source: my ass - I'm not a doctor :)

Maybe she can help sort out your inventory? Create spreadsheets, handle orders, etc. She can also post memes here while you build haha
 
I don't see any medical reason for short time tasks. I had very good experiences working with my daughter. We did a ukelele and a Cajon together. But I can't work with my wife, she need plenty of room and has completely different way to work. If we do e.g. cooking together, I have always to look at her anticipating what she is doing next and step back when she is in her flow.
 
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andare said:
I wouldn't risk her being around tools that you've touched after handling solder, it might have an effect.
It should be ok for her to drill enclosures and mount hardware though, in another room away from fumes.
Source: my ass - I'm not a doctor :)

Maybe she can help sort out your inventory? Create spreadsheets, handle orders, etc. She can also post memes here while you build haha
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she wouldn’t be using any tools either. She would be stuffing pcbs with resistors and caps while I’m at work then i would solder after. Maybe I could have her help with inventory and memes hahaha 🤣
 
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drgonzo1969 said:
she wouldn’t be using any tools either. She would be stuffing pcbs with resistors and caps while I’m at work then i would solder after. Maybe I could have her help with inventory and memes hahaha 🤣
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I assume PCBs and components are clean when I get them.
So she should be safe populating boards before you touch them with your leaded paws haha
 
Caps, resistors, sockets, jacks and pcb are probably safer than pots, but i wouldn't touch any sensitive part of my body after touching those, without washing my hands first. I often notice that my fingers are sticky after handling potentiometers. They probably are covered with some sort of chemical product.
 
That sounds like a horrible situation. I’m glad to hear she got out of there.

I assume everything around my workbench is pretty well contaminated at this point. I would think loading pcbs with gloves on would be relatively safe, but I still wouldn’t recommend it.

Does she play guitar?
 
drgonzo1969 said:
My wife recently quit her job because it was in an unsafe neighborhood here in Chicago and there was a massive shootout right outside the restaurant and customers were injured/killed. Anyways, now my wife is in between jobs and bored. She wants to help me populate PCBs but I am a little hesitant because she is also pregnant right now and I dont know how safe it is for her to be handling resistors and capacitors. I dont know? what do you guys think? maybe ok with gloves? No big deal just wash hands and dont touch eyes or mouth? Not safe? bad idea? let me know your thoughts and opinions. Thanks for you time

edit: She wouldn't be doing any soldering haha just placing resistors and capacitors in the pcbs.
Click to expand...
glad she is safe and got out of that situation; our country needs to take the shootout problem more seriously.
 
drgonzo1969 said:
My wife recently quit her job because it was in an unsafe neighborhood here in Chicago and there was a massive shootout right outside the restaurant and customers were injured/killed. Anyways, now my wife is in between jobs and bored. She wants to help me populate PCBs but I am a little hesitant because she is also pregnant right now and I dont know how safe it is for her to be handling resistors and capacitors. I dont know? what do you guys think? maybe ok with gloves? No big deal just wash hands and dont touch eyes or mouth? Not safe? bad idea? let me know your thoughts and opinions. Thanks for you time

edit: She wouldn't be doing any soldering haha just placing resistors and capacitors in the pcbs.
Click to expand...
Yes I think it would be fine.
If worried about manufactured materials or le ad, make sure she doesn't touch her face and washes her hands.
 
@drgonzo1969 -

Shocking, I hope she's feeling and doing ok, events like this are a wake-up call on the fragility of life...

I also think she can help you, and she can also wear disposable nitrile or vinyl gloves if you're worried about lead from solder. I don't think handling resistors, capacitors or transistors is an especially serious concern - handwashing is always advised anyway, and again disposable gloves can help. Heck, she's probably better than many of us are, maybe we can all collectively hire her to populate our boards, too. :)
 
Glad to hear your wife escaped that neighbourhood unharmed.



A friend recently sent out invitations for a 60th anniversary party. A friend of his came to his aid, drunk.
Dual invites were sent out, some people got the wrong invite (family-only dinner vs after-dinner party for everyone), some didn't get invites at all...


So long as your wife takes the precautions others have already mentioned and you trust her to pop a board accurately so you're not hunting down that 120Ω vs 10k resistor mixup...

... and so long as she isn't drunk when doing it.

pregnant-woman-smoking-a-cigarette-and-drinking-alcohol.jpg



Devil's avocado.jpeg

Is it worth the risk at all?
A few days fiddling with parts populating vs a person born with a congenital problem that remains with them for life...


Brutal Honesty: I'm telling you I think it'd be fine with proper precautions taken, but I'm not sure I'd follow my own advice if it was my wife&child. 🤷‍♂️
Mind, I've not done the homework/research to see how safe or dangerous it may be, so just another vacuous armchair-opinion on the Net.
 
Lead isn't transdermal. Gloves or proper hand washing and non touching of the face/eating.
If you're not using a proper air filtration system, it may be time to bite the bullet, even though times are tight. You can buy a sq meter of charcoal filter foam stuff off of AliExpress for pretty cheap.
 
If you are really concerned, have her wear nitrile gloves, and wash up after handling. Again, out of caution, you could implement exhaust extraction - not that the lead ever gets hot enough to vaporize, I’m sure the flux and accidental plastic burns aren’t much good to breath!
I also believe the transfer of lead is difficult or nearly impossible through normal skin contact (and most mfrs are using tinning now that is lead free).

As for how much it actually builds up for those of us who have worked with it for decades, I’m about to find out- as part of my “you are officially old and due for your half-century PM”, my dr is having metals tested in the bloodwork. So in a few weeks I’ll have numbers for what 40yrs of heavy elecrronics work really amount to!
 
Which neighborhood in Chicago, if you don't mind me asking? I lived all over the north side for years and never saw anything too crazy, but the neighborhoods are always changing.
 
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