Challenges to common knowledge;

an,

r ball

e tip

der makers

ff.

The main problem with my Hakko is that they're hellishly hard to keep tinned. Dunno why. Lovely iron.

Once tinned it'll hold for a while, slowly slags up. It takes a good scraping and multiple flux treatments to re-anchor that first spot of solder, then more work to spread it.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Not sure what you are doing wrong there, maybe you are using cheap no-name tips? My tips do not wear and I have used the wet sponge method since the 80's. The tip in my oldest Weller station is over 10 years old, the iron has been on for days on end, no problems whatsoever.

Huh? I suggest you invest in a "real" solder iron. Hint: The tip surface is not copper on those.

Oh man ...

Remember the days when we had a pot of flux and the "white rock"?

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

ball

Yup. Plus it's not the resin that "attacks" copper. It's just dissolved into tin because... copper is soluble into tin.

--
Thanks,
Fred.

No.

It is the lead in the solder which slowly dissolves away copper, as it does many other metals (including platinum).

NASA soldering standards require monitoring of solder pots and baths for dissolved copper and gold, with limits set for Cu 0.25%, Au 0.20%, and Bi

0.25%, with (considerably) lower limits for a slew of other metals.

--
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence 
over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
                                       (Richard Feynman)

lean,

der ball

the tip

older makers

tuff.

My Pace chisel tips will stay tinned forever. Very nice products.

On a sunny day (Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:23:10 -0700) it happened Fred Abse wrote in :

You are probably right, but my experience points differently.

NASA cannot even get people to the moon anymore, maybe too much lead makes their rockets too heavy ;-)

If you look at the top solder bit in this picture,

you will see it is eroded away just above the protective layer at a point where there hardly ever is any solder. It is even burned where it fits IN the soldering heating element. That top one is Weller tip, 370 degrees, too hot anyways. I think the copper burns (say 'oxidises'), and it burns better where there is some resin collecting. It oxidises even more every time it touches a wet sponge. Of course in outer space, or spaced outer or something, there is no oxygen, so NASA (if they ever get to space again) would not have that problem. ;-)

[......]

IIRC the white rock is Ammonium chloride.

[a Weller WTP type tinned-silver-on-iron-over-copper tip]

The resin attacks copper OXIDE, and reduces it into metallic copper, in proximity to liquid solder which then dissolves that copper. The tip shown has lost some of its iron plating, and when solder dissolved the copper inside, the remaining plating detached with time to make the iron-plating-missing area larger.

There is some possibility, too, that the iron layer breached, and subsequent oxidation of the copper core caused the core to expand and rupture the remaining iron plating in that region.

On a sunny day (Tue, 4 Oct 2011 12:04:41 -0700 (PDT)) it happened whit3rd wrote in :

Interesting, how do yo uexplain the rim on the other side, where it fits in the soldering iron, being eroded?

[]_____________ ==========[]_______________ point [] part that goes in heating element ^ | rim that holds the bit in the soldering iron body eroded too.

Sorry, cannot draw point in ASCII without making everyting super big.

Electrolytic action between dissimilar metals in the presence of flux activators?

Tip: use RMA, rather than RA flux cored solder.

--
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence 
over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
                                       (Richard Feynman)

In my experience, that part doesn't get either flux or liquid solder (more likely to contact heatshrink tubing, though...). So, the erosion would be a matter of copper somehow exposed to air, and oxidizing then (after many tip-changes, perhaps) the brittle black oxide falls away to expose fresh copper. Undermining the iron plating all the while.

It's an odd tip failure, that one. I've never before seen a retaining collar feature go bad.

Exactly right. Ersin makes a solder with copper already part of the alloy, tradenamed "Savbit", to prevent dissolving your soldering tip.

See:

On a sunny day (Tue, 4 Oct 2011 13:22:32 -0700 (PDT)) it happened whit3rd wrote in :

It think you are right. I did not really change tip that often, always used this one, or sometimes the thick wider one for big surfaces. But there could have been some friction, as I sometimes apply pressure, and that moves that rim a bit, helping the surface breakdown, and exposing fresh copper to the air.

It is my view, that perhaps if the whole bit was coated with the same stuff they use for the tip, that then the thing would last longer.

On a sunny day (Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:06:02 -0700) it happened Fred Abse wrote in :

Will try.

I've seen it. Goes back to the old days of plain, non-plated tips. Produced a rather dull finish to joints, similar to modern lead-free crap.

Doubtfully useful today. Any place lead bearing solder is legit (MIL, NASA, etc) specify 60/40 or 63/37. Copper contamination is a no-no.

--
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence 
over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
                                       (Richard Feynman)