How to easily clean a soldering iron tip.
LShaping
they're great. But sometimes, the residue takes too long to remove
by wiping. Is there anything, or method, that cleans a tip easily?
One more question. I might be doing a little soldering outside in 40
degree weather. Will that prevent the typical iron from getting hot
enough (using typical solder)?
TIA
LShaping.
Sam Goldwasser
A little new solder and flux, wipe on a wet sponge does it for me. NEVER
file or sand an 'everbright' (or whatever it is called) tip!
The outside temp. should be pretty irrelevant.
--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Mirror Info: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html
| Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.misty.com/~don/lasersam.html
> TIA
> LShaping.
DaveyK
irons with heat controlled electronics internally that act like a solder
station and maintain contant tip temperature. HAKO tips are also extreamly
long lived. You can almost get a year's use out of one tip using it daily.
I love HAKO. As for cleaning the tips, I am sold on the coated wire mesh.
HAKO and Several other brands are sold. They are typically about $9 for the
brass wire mesh and holder bowl. You jab your iron in to the mesh, not
wiping. You'll never need to keep a sponge wet again!
Take care,
Dave
LShaping wrote in message <36933399...@news.mindspring.com>...
>My soldering iron tips don't take solder more than 1/4" up the tip,
>they're great. But sometimes, the residue takes too long to remove
>by wiping. Is there anything, or method, that cleans a tip easily?
>One more question. I might be doing a little soldering outside in 40
>degree weather. Will that prevent the typical iron from getting hot
>enough (using typical solder)?
>TIA
>LShaping.
Don
iron hot enough to make good connections in colder weather. In those
cases, I just up the power...like a 140 watt gun or a propane torch.
Cleaning iron plated tips... I dont know what size youre talking about,
but the last 1/4 " is about all thats used on most size tips, so dont
worry about cleaning it up higher. Just wiping on a damp sponge and
applying some solder usually work. Heres another thing that helps if the
tip is pretty dirty... dip it into paste flux, and after it melts good,
wipe it on the damp sponge, then apply some solder.
Don
Chris
found very useful and effective. It's a small tin containing a solid
mix of special flux and solder paste, which cleans and re-tins the
soldering iron tip when you dab or wipe the iron over the surface.
It is very efficient, and you find that you are using a lot less
solder in 'wetting' the tip, consequently you find that a lot less
burnt flux from your solder gathers around the tip.
It is also very effective for re-tinning tips that have 'burnt dry'
through being left on too long - it saves you from forcing a foot of
multicore onto the tip in a desperate attempt to make it take solder
again!
Personally, since discovering it three years ago, I would feel lost
without it (Multicore, are you reading this?).
For outdoors soldering I prefer a butane soldering iron for several
reasons: First, you don't need mains wiring - so you don't need to
panic when it rains.
Second, they have a lot of power in reserve - needed when it's windy
unless you have a (comparatively) expensive solder-station setup.
(Outdoor soldering note: The ambient temperature doesn't have much
effect - wind-chill does.)
Third, you can include other useful stuff, such as a hot air
attachment or fan-flame for reducing heat-shrink, and a wide variety
of bits, up to the one used for soldering drainpipes together. (Well,
almost.) Mine even includes a glue-gun attachment, which is
_excellent_ for sealing/weatherproofing those outdoor joints...
And fourth - it's power reserve means that it can tackle indoor jobs
that would otherwise need a separate iron - soldering/unsoldering from
metal chassis, or the occasional use of high temperature aluminum
solder, etc.
I hope you find this useful, and my apologies to the other respondents
who said outdoor soldering is no problem - it depends on where you
are; the buzzword is 'Windchill', as those who also live in Devon
will attest.
On Sun, 03 Jan 1999 09:12:04 GMT, NoS...@mindspring.com (LShaping)
Petercoe
>file or sand an 'everbright' (or whatever it is called) tip!
>
>The outside temp. should be pretty irrelevant.
Hey Sam; When I see a definitive answer I usually look at the mailing address.
If it says "Sam Goldwasser", I just go on to the next post.
Brad Boegler
repair shop and we have 5 Hako irons and 4 vacume desoldering stations on every
day for 9 hours. We replace tips about once every 5 or 6 months. Best irons I
have ever used.
Brad
DaveyK wrote:
> Personally, I perfer only HAKO soldering equipment. They have portable
> irons with heat controlled electronics internally that act like a solder
> station and maintain contant tip temperature. HAKO tips are also extreamly
> long lived. You can almost get a year's use out of one tip using it daily.
> I love HAKO. As for cleaning the tips, I am sold on the coated wire mesh.
> HAKO and Several other brands are sold. They are typically about $9 for the
> brass wire mesh and holder bowl. You jab your iron in to the mesh, not
> wiping. You'll never need to keep a sponge wet again!
>
> Take care,
>
> Dave
>
> LShaping wrote in message <36933399...@news.mindspring.com>...
Clifton T. Sharp Jr.
> On 3 Jan 1999 20:50:58 GMT, pete...@aol.com (Petercoe) wrote:
> >Hey Sam; When I see a definitive answer I usually look at the mailing address.
> > If it says "Sam Goldwasser", I just go on to the next post.
>
I read that as saying "I just go on to the next post because I know I
can't give a better answer than Sam did." I frequently do the same thing.
--
| Cliff Sharp | All relevant people are pertinent. |
| WA9PDM | All rude people are impertinent. |
| | Therefore, no rude people are relevant. |
| | --Solomon W. Golomb |
LShaping
On Sun, 03 Jan 1999 19:47:59 GMT, ch...@zabadak.globalnet.co.uk
(Chris) wrote:
>On Sun, 03 Jan 1999 09:12:04 GMT, NoS...@mindspring.com (LShaping)
>wrote:
>
>>My soldering iron tips don't take solder more than 1/4" up the tip,
>>they're great. But sometimes, the residue takes too long to remove
>>by wiping. Is there anything, or method, that cleans a tip easily?
>>One more question. I might be doing a little soldering outside in 40
>>degree weather. Will that prevent the typical iron from getting hot
>>enough (using typical solder)?
>>LShaping.
>'Multicore' make a tip-tinner/cleaner (part number TTC 1) that I've
>found very useful and effective. <snip>
><snip> - it saves you from forcing a foot of
>multicore onto the tip in a desperate attempt to make it take solder
>again! <snip>
I hate that! Thanks. Digi-Key sells it.
>
>For outdoors soldering I prefer a butane soldering iron <snip>
>(Outdoor soldering note: The ambient temperature doesn't have much
>effect - wind-chill does.)
><snip> Mine even includes a glue-gun attachment, which is
>_excellent_ for sealing/weatherproofing those outdoor joints...<snip>
I too use a glue gun for electronics and a for few other things now
and then. Took me over a year to get proficient at it.
LShaping.
LShaping
>>A little new solder and flux, wipe on a wet sponge does it for me. NEVER
>>file or sand an 'everbright' (or whatever it is called) tip!
>>The outside temp. should be pretty irrelevant.
>
>Hey Sam; When I see a definitive answer I usually look at the mailing address.
> If it says "Sam Goldwasser", I just go on to the next post.
Please don't mess with Sam. He listed my Oscillophones link on one of
his pages, if I am not mistaken. BTW Sam, the address has changed.
http://www.mindspring.com/~lshaping
LShaping.
Petercoe
>address.
>> If it says "Sam Goldwasser", I just go on to the next post.
>
>Please don't mess with Sam. He listed my Oscillophones link on one of
>his pages, if I am not mistaken. BTW Sam, the address has changed.
>
Hey! That was praise.
LShaping
<cli...@megsinet.net> wrote:
>> >Hey Sam; When I see a definitive answer I usually look at the mailing address.
>> > If it says "Sam Goldwasser", I just go on to the next post.
>>
>> Please don't mess with Sam.
>
>I read that as saying "I just go on to the next post because I know I
>can't give a better answer than Sam did." I frequently do the same thing.
The author already cleared up the misunderstanding.
LShaping.
Pete
> My soldering iron tips don't take solder more than 1/4" up the tip,
> they're great. But sometimes, the residue takes too long to remove
> by wiping.
LShaping, my experience when I worked the bench and my
soldering Iron was left on for long periods of time
(8hrs per day & 7days per week) the Tip would slowly
develop a hard crust of oxidation to the point where it
would not fully heat up or tin properly. Regular cleaning
by wiping was useless so I would just trash the tip and
replace it with a new one.
HOWEVER, one day I discovered that if I used my mini-diagonal
cutters, I could crack, loosen and remove the baked on crust
of oxidation which then revealed a shiny new-like tip once
again. The newly exposed tip would tin and heat-up like new.
WARNING! This operation takes a very gentle touch as not to
cut into or mar the original tinned surface and should only
be used as a last resort after regular cleaning methods fail.
If you cut into the original tinned surface it results in tiny
"holes" or "pits" which eventually grow in size and totally
destroy the tip.
---pete---
Homer
you use. I have tried 5 diffrent makes cheap to top line and found them
all to be unreliable (mostly gas leaks)
Let me know please!
Paul {:-)
Dave Kuhn
would ever use and electric solder pump -> "Yea, yea, yea, a REAL tech only
uses a manual desolder tool". Heh heh heh. I used a portable HAKO desolder
tool for a week and feel in love with it!!! I now use it daily and can not
live without it. The portable one looks kinda like a solder gun and works
very well. I have not torn up a trace since using it and find it is
fantastic for salvaging parts off of thru-hole boards. Now old boards make
an excellent parts storage system! heh heh
Brad Boegler <ind...@mich.com> wrote in message
news:369026DB...@mich.com...
> I agree, Hako makes excellent soldering equipment. I work at a
satellite
>repair shop and we have 5 Hako irons and 4 vacume desoldering stations on
every
>day for 9 hours. We replace tips about once every 5 or 6 months. Best irons
I
>have ever used.
>
>Brad
>
>
>DaveyK wrote:
>
>> Personally, I perfer only HAKO soldering equipment. They have portable
>> irons with heat controlled electronics internally that act like a solder
>> station and maintain contant tip temperature. HAKO tips are also
extreamly
>> long lived. You can almost get a year's use out of one tip using it
daily.
>> I love HAKO. As for cleaning the tips, I am sold on the coated wire
mesh.
>> HAKO and Several other brands are sold. They are typically about $9 for
the
>> brass wire mesh and holder bowl. You jab your iron in to the mesh, not
>> wiping. You'll never need to keep a sponge wet again!
>>
>> Take care,
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> LShaping wrote in message <36933399...@news.mindspring.com>...
>> >My soldering iron tips don't take solder more than 1/4" up the tip,
>> >they're great. But sometimes, the residue takes too long to remove
>> >by wiping. Is there anything, or method, that cleans a tip easily?
>> >One more question. I might be doing a little soldering outside in 40
>> >degree weather. Will that prevent the typical iron from getting hot
>> >enough (using typical solder)?
>> >TIA
>> >LShaping.
>
>
>
Team Goon
LShaping wrote in message <3690a51c...@news.mindspring.com>...
Chris
wrote:
>I too use a glue gun for electronics and a for few other things now
>and then. Took me over a year to get proficient at it.
>LShaping.
As a child I used to spoon treacle (golden syrup) onto squares of
fried bread. I've never had any difficulty with glue guns...
LShaping
So the cob-webs don't bother you?
LShaping.
Steve Dunbar
> Is there anything, or method, that cleans a tip easily?
You can get little cans of tip-cleaning compound, such as Kester
Ultrapure Tip Tinner, which does a pretty good job on grungy tips. You
shouldn't need to use this very often if you take care of your tip.
Hollow tips that slide over the heating element, such as those used on
Hakko solder stations, also corrode on the inside. You can rap them
on the bench top to knock some of the crud out, but eventually they
wear out to the point that heat from the element is not transferred
efficiently to the tip.
-- Steve
Ray Foster
Lionel Wagner
There are two kinds of technicians: "lickers" and "flingers" ;-)
The "lickers" clean their irons by wiping them on a damp sponge or
a special wick (the best method). The "flingers" flick excess solder
on the floor and make neat discs that children love.
...well...the thread is old...that"s when they usually get silly.. ;-)
--
{ Audio/Visual Technician, City of Ottawa. }
Lionel Wagner....{ Vice-President, Ottawa Science Fiction Society. }
{ "The more I hear about other people's troubles, }
{ ... the better I feel about my own". }