How to clean (and maintain) a solder iron tip

[Muse]

My old soldering pencil finally stopped working the other day - no heat, so I went shopping and picked up a Weller pencil, SP23L, 25 watts.

The instructions say to keep the tip clean or solder won't adhere to the hot tip. Having much experience, I'm aware of that problem. I have replaced tips, even put them in a lathe and filed them (a no no).

I use what I think is standard rosin-core electrical solder, stuff I picked up for a buck at a computer show.

This tip is supposed to be nickle plated copper. Weller's instructions say to buy one of their accessories to keep the tip in top shape, a Weller Polishing Bar, part number WPB1. WTH is that? Surely, there's a DIY means of dealing with this problem (without having to go out and buy this accessory, which I've never even seen). I haven't plugged my new gizmo in for more than two seconds, just to make sure it heats. I know I'm supposed to condition the tip (and keep it conditioned). What do you do?

 

[wisdomtooth]

I have used the same soldering iron for the past 20 years, purchased for $10 at Radio Shack in 1985.

All I do is wipe the tip with a THICK wad of newspaper (so I don't burn myself) after finishing a soldering job. Never had a problem with the tip not heating up.

The solder I use is also your standard electronics rosin-core solder, but I have a can of flux handy as well-- I find that the rosin in the solder is usually not enough to get it to flow.

 

[LED]

Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

 

[John]

Originally posted by: LED
Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

 

[Muse]

Found what looks to be a pretty good thread in a newsgroup on the subject:

Solder Iron Cleaning ???!!

One of the posts in the thread references the following:

The Basic Soldering Guide

The Basic Soldering Guide Photo Gallery

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: LED
Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

That, and if it really gets gunked up, out comes the Dremel. I have sharpened one soldering iron for use with SMD components, and the other one (duller tip) just gets the wire brush attachment to really clean it good.

Edit - on Boshuter's advice, only do this on really cheap soldering irons that you don't mind botching up a bit.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: LED
Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

That, and if it really gets gunked up, out comes the Dremel. I have sharpened one soldering iron for use with SMD components, and the other one (duller tip) just gets the wire brush attachment to really clean it good.

What's SMD? Solder Mask Defined (semiconductor substrate process)?

Reading the Solder Iron Cleaning ???!!, I discovered that soldering and soldering tool maintenance is something of an art, and depends a lot on what kind of soldering tool and tip you have. The wet sponge seems to be the most recurring theme, but it seems there's the issue of heat. Excessive heat of the tip over time can be a problem. If you have a coating on your tip, the abrasive technique may not be a good idea! In my case, it appears I have a nickle coating, so I will try to not use abrasives if I can help it. Of course, I can buy new tips, but I figure if I do things right, I can avoid doing that (too often).

 

[boshuter]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: LED
Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

That, and if it really gets gunked up, out comes the Dremel. I have sharpened one soldering iron for use with SMD components, and the other one (duller tip) just gets the wire brush attachment to really clean it good.

Please dont' use this suggestion..... never file, dremel, or anything else that will remove the coating on the tip. Just use a wet sponge to periodicly wipe it down and put a coat of fresh solder on the tip and wipe it down right before you unplug or turn off the iron.

Disregard this advice if you use a Radio Shack soldering iron.... really doesn't matter then

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: boshuter

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: LED
Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

That, and if it really gets gunked up, out comes the Dremel. I have sharpened one soldering iron for use with SMD components, and the other one (duller tip) just gets the wire brush attachment to really clean it good.

Please dont' use this suggestion..... never file, dremel, or anything else that will remove the coating on the tip. Just use a wet sponge to periodicly wipe it down and put a coat of fresh solder on the tip and wipe it down right before you unplug or turn off the iron.

Disregard this advice if you use a Radio Shack soldering iron.... really doesn't matter then

LOL! The other day my first stop on an errand run was Radio Shack. Yep, I looked at what they had and walked out with an iron that cost $8.19 + tax. On my run was a hardware store (to buy bulbs) and I thought I'd ask to see their solder irons. I was shown what they had including a special on a Weller SP23L ($9), and I decided to buy it and return the Radio Shack iron, which I did an hour or two later. For one thing, the Weller has a 7 year guarantee (against defects), is a brand that's been around forever and the tip was represented as nickel-coated copper. The Radio Shack iron had absolutely nothing on the packaging extolling any of it's virtues. Heck with THAT.

The advice quoted above seems about as basic and sensible as I've seen, and I've just read dozens of posts on the subject. Reread that advice!

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a Weller 25W (I think) iron that I've had for years, the tips screw into the barrel, and they are coated with something. I also have a couple of solder-iron accessories from RatShack, a little iron-holder with a small sponge that sits below it for cleaning, and a nifty plastic 3" vise, as well as some spring-loaded metal clips, sort of heatsink-ish, but one of them has a movable bend in them, and I clip the handle into the vise, and then use the spring-loaded clip to hold the part, if I have to hold a wire and the soldering iron in both hands. (As an aside, if one could genetically-engineer humans to have four arms hands, manual electronics assembling labor-efficiency would probably shoot through the roof. I expect the Chinese to try that at some point, probably in the next 50 years, assuming that some global treaty doesn't ban that sort of thing soon. Genetic manipulation of offspring, for future family/corporate-unit economic advantage, is just around the corner.)

Anyways, I've had to replace the tip that came with the iron once so far since I've owned it, the tip eventually gets eaten away and needs to be replaced after a few years.

 

[TomKazansky]

Originally posted by: LED
Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

 

[impemonk]

I usually just dowse the solder tip in pee. jkjkjkjkjk. Solder-iron accessories are very much important

 

[Nocturnal]

Ok when you solder something are you supposed to kinda melt the solder on the tip of the iron and then touch the iron to the joint or area you want soldered? I did my own XBox mod chip and what I did was touch the place where I wanted soldered, heated the area up, and then touched the solder to the tip of the soldering iron and it kinda just fell onto the area where I needed it to be soldered. Is that the general idea? And then when I did this super fine soldering point I just kinda melted the solder on the tip of the soldering iron and from there touched the point really softly and a tiny bit of solder went onto the point and it made the connection just right.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: LED
Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

That's what I use.

 

[WackyDan]

I've had wellers and radioshacks. Wellers are great.... though I still have a radio shack as my main iron after 16 years - believe it was actually a weller design with a RS logo on it. Either way... tips weren't terribly expensive, and with moist sponging last a long time.

 

[boshuter]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Ok when you solder something are you supposed to kinda melt the solder on the tip of the iron and then touch the iron to the joint or area you want soldered? I did my own XBox mod chip and what I did was touch the place where I wanted soldered, heated the area up, and then touched the solder to the tip of the soldering iron and it kinda just fell onto the area where I needed it to be soldered. Is that the general idea? And then when I did this super fine soldering point I just kinda melted the solder on the tip of the soldering iron and from there touched the point really softly and a tiny bit of solder went onto the point and it made the connection just right.

The parts to be soldered have to be hot enought to melt the solder, the iron is just used to heat them up. A common mistake is to melt the solder with the iron and then try to transfer it to the parts. If the parts being soldered are not hot enough themselves to melt the solder you will end up with a "cold solder joint" which may work, but will fail sooner or later. I'm sure you've all seen the monitors that you have to smack with your hand to "pop" them back on... that's usually caused by a cold solder joint. You do need to "tin" your soldering iron tip. Tinning is applying a thin layer of solder to the tip to aid in heat transfer. You should also tin the tip right before shutting off your iron, this will help the tip last much longer.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: boshuter

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: LED
Moist sponge or Paper towel works great for me

That, and if it really gets gunked up, out comes the Dremel. I have sharpened one soldering iron for use with SMD components, and the other one (duller tip) just gets the wire brush attachment to really clean it good.

Please dont' use this suggestion..... never file, dremel, or anything else that will remove the coating on the tip. Just use a wet sponge to periodicly wipe it down and put a coat of fresh solder on the tip and wipe it down right before you unplug or turn off the iron.

Disregard this advice if you use a Radio Shack soldering iron.... really doesn't matter then

Radio Shack iron - how did you know?
I have never spent more than $10 on an iron, so they're fairly disposable for me I guess.

Also - SMD = Surface Mount Device.

 

[boshuter]

Radio Shack iron - how did you know?

LOL... it was just a shot in the dark. I have a couple of them laying around myself. There is nothing wrong with a RS iron for a hobbiest. I do a lot of soldering and probably average 20 hrs a week on my iron so it's worth the money to have good equipment.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: boshuter

Radio Shack iron - how did you know?

LOL... it was just a shot in the dark. I have a couple of them laying around myself. There is nothing wrong with a RS iron for a hobbiest. I do a lot of soldering and probably average 20 hrs a week on my iron so it's worth the money to have good equipment.

Well, I do very little soldering. I did get what seems like a decent soldering iron (Weller) for around $10 a month or so ago, but I ran into something I wasn't sure I should get a couple of days ago, but did: A 150 watt soldering gun on sale at Harbor Freight B&M for $5.99 (until March 26). I figure I can use it for those rare but occasional times when the weller soldering iron doesn't seem sufficient but a propane torch is overkill. It comes with some solder (which looks like electrical solder, but it doesn't say that anywhere - you can see a tiny hole in the solder, which I figure is flux in the core), and has a container of flux. Nowhere does it say what it's best suited to. It says it heats to 750 F in 8-12 seconds. They seems to be saying you should pull the trigger for 12 seconds, solder something and then let it cool for 48 seconds. They say it will last longer if you use it that way (the instructions). I wonder if it's OK to do electrical stuff with it or it's best used for just joining metal parts together and that sort of thing. I do have a few different solders I could try with it. It came with two additional tips.

 

[Zepper]

When new, tin the tip. Then just keep it clean with moist paper towel or sponge and keep it nice and shiny with retinning as necessary.

.bh.

 

[nineball9]

Beware of acid core flux. It's for soldering pipes (and the like) and will corrode electrical connections.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: nineball9
Beware of acid core flux. It's for soldering pipes (and the like) and will corrode electrical connections.

Hmm. They didn't give a clue about the stuff they included. There's a container of flux and some solder that looks to be flux core. It looks electrical, but that's just my admittedly uneducated eye. I think I'll stick to my Weller and known electrical solder for all electrical stuff and just use this 150 watter for mechanical soldering.

 

[xgsound]

Cliff notes: 1. Always loosen and retighten the tip before and after using.
2. Always apply solder to tip and wipe with damp cloth or sponge for a bright clean surface before and after using.

If you cannot get a clean bright surface on the tip, you can't get a good solder joint.

Don't leave the iron on unnecessarily for more than a few minutes without being used.

Jim

 

[foofoo]

Metcal makes the best soldering irons that i've ever used.
link
they're pricey but using rf to heat the tip works better than any resistive heating.
also here's a bit on tip cleanning
link