Highland Ham wrote:
60/40 solder is no longer officially sold in the UK

Yes, it is - by the suppliers already quoted and many more.

The main reason is to support the continued use of tin/lead solder for
repairs to existing tin/lead soldered equipment. This also ensures a
continuing supply for home construction, which is specifically excluded
from the RoHS regulations:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/pdf/faq_weee.pdf
(see question 1.15).

An amateur constructor is only *required* to use lead-free solder when
repairing a product that was put on the market after July 2006, and was
therefore 'born lead-free'.

The only significant UK electronics distributor that doesn't sell
regular tin/lead solder is Maplin. That is because they jumped to
conclusions without reading the regulations, and still haven't realised.


--

73 from Ian GM3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek