DIY soldering tips

What do you think of this?

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Are factory made tips made of pure copper?

Andy

Reply to
Andy
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If you've got more time than money it's fine.

George H.

Reply to
George Herold

they usually are, but nowadays are iron plated. I have also found irons with a sawn off steel nail for a tip at the bottom end.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

OP, any person doing serious soldering for electronics will have a thermostatically temperature controlled soldering iron which means the tip is more complicated then just a piece of metal.

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Reply to
makolber

When the Metcal 500s were discontinued, I bought three of them plus several lots of slightly used tips on eBay.

Highly recommended. DIY tips, not so much.

The bargain-basement Chinese temperature-controlled ones can be surprisingl y good too, though it's probably unwise to leave them plugged in when not i n use. ;) (*)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

(*) true also of boat anchors--I lost a very nice Krohn-Hite tunable bandpa ss filter when a clamp-mounted PS filter cap slipped and shorted to the cas e. Clouds of transformer smoke erupted. That's why I always keep the power bars turned off when I'm not in the lab.

Reply to
pcdhobbs

The factory tips are iron plated. They stay cleaner and do not get pitted like pure copper does. So thick solid copper wire is fine, but you will spend more time keeping them tinned and clean.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

That's why I often retroactively add fuses between transformer secondaries and their respective bridge rectifiers. Seen too many Xformers melt...

May not have applied in your case of course.

John :-#)#

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(Please post followups or tech inquiries to the USENET newsgroup) 
                      John's Jukes Ltd. 
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Reply to
John Robertson

there are people assembling electronics in the 3rd world without such luxuries.

Reply to
tabbypurr

Not a bad idea, if I'd thought of it.

A bit of fish paper glued to the bottom panel sure would have helped!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs  
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Reply to
pcdhobbs

I think the Metcal patents have run out, so Thermaltronics is selling compatible tips fairly cheap, and even entire stations. Amazon has them.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

Modern soldering iron tip for electronic and microelectronic use are hard clad with an easily wettable alloy. Clad onto steel IIRC.

Copper gets etched away to nothing.

My dad brought me home two half inch by 5 inch copper bars from his work, and I made new "tips" for my 80 watt pencil for doing leaded glass work, but NOT for electronics. They had real good "thermal mass".

The problem would be even worse today with lead free soldering processes at a much higher temperature.

Reply to
Long Hair

Tangential question: I have a temperature-controlled iron now with swish LCD display. It has buttons for presets.

What are some good presets for different jobs?

Reply to
bitrex

I still use my Weller WS-80 it is temperature controlled and the tip is just a piece of metal (iron plated copper)

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Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

My weller wtcpt has tips with either 700 or 800 F. I mostly use the 700 ones.

that's about 535 degrees Felsius,

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:^)

Reply to
George Herold

onto copper. Nothing matches Cu for thermal performance.

all bits do. All bits become Cu once the plating goes through and it's filed. It seems to have become fashionable to criticise bare copper but it's perfectly good. Some of my oldest irons still run bare copper.

It is, though the temp isn't much higher. I've seen old Solon irons with random cuprous tips, old round plug pins etc.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I've been using 725 degrees F for most PCB work with 60/40 and through-hole parts like TO-92s, 1/4th watt resistors, that seems about right. For things like guitar amps with terminal strips and larger components I put it up to 800

Reply to
bitrex

No point in filing--if the Fe plating fails I just chuck the tip. Haven't had it happen in yonks--Metcal tips fail from the contact becoming intermittent.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
pcdhobbs

On Wednesday, 31 January 2018 14:59:14 UTC, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: NT:

It's quicker to rub it on a file than replace. So no point replacing.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I really think that modern tips have something other than a simple iron plating.

No. Metcal tips fail bvecause idiots try to pull it when it is still live, and then the contacts inside the base unit get screwed up, messing up every tip inserted.

Have to change tips with power removed.

The new Metcal units turn off the tip drive whenever the soldering 'pen' is placed into the holder. The holders have magnets in them which tell the base to power down the pen.

I like the even newer, dual pen units... I have about 5 of them. One simply switches pens instead of the tip change thing, which also reduces the number of cycles introduced. The tip change-out is the main wear element, as folks change tips a lot in sparsely populated labs. Many would have two units with a tip in each, but leave the things on all day. The old ones had a 5 minute timer in them, but some od those never work as they get reset on a thermal shock to the tip.

These new ones are great. Literally up to temp in 5 seconds flat.

Reply to
Long Hair

Well, if the tips you use are shaped like the Great Pyramid, maybe there is n't. (Shades of those old-timey wood burning art kits they used to sell.) (

*)

I usually use very small curved ones. With Metcals you get the best of all worlds--tips small enough for SC70 parts that can solder large parts to a g round plane. Plus they heat up in a few seconds, and you change them by sim ply pulling one out and plugging another in, elapsed time maybe four second s. The handpieces even come with handy silicone rubber pads attached so you can change a hot tip without needing pliers.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

(*) As opposed to wood-fired.

Reply to
pcdhobbs

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