Extending Soldering Tip Life

Don't know what you are doing but my tips live almost forever. AFAIK lead-free solder can ruin them faster.

So you only used it to light cigarettes then :-)

Buy an Ersa soldering iron and tips. The tips usually last longer than the iron.

Visit

clean

solder

Buy an Ersa soldering iron and tips. The tips usually last longer than the iron.

-- Reply to nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) Bedrijven en winkels vindt U op

----------- Ooops typo in my original post..."add something to the sponge.." (I can multitask if I can blend everything... :)

I'm using a Cooper/Weller long conical tip from Digikey in a temp station set at the lowest practical temperature. Lately, this past year...I've killed 3 tips...The plating on the tip goes and a ridge forms. So...I'm suspicious.. I've only made about 10 PCB's this year.

I'll check out Ersa..Thanks.. D

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Hakko is also nice. Inexpensive but perform very well. Tons of tips available. I have two stations, this helps a lot since you don't stress out one iron with all the work, esp heating up large mass. I find Weller to be "eh", I don't like the system for the tips, looks like there can't be too much heat transferred from the heater. No-clean is damaging to the tips, a black substance forms on the tips that's hard to get rid of and seems to be harmful. Use brass wool "sponge" instead of cellulose.

Now I just wish Ersa was available in the US. That's what I had in Europe a lot, now it's all Weller. The big Bertha is still an Ersa and needs 230V. Almost big enough to do a plumbing job.

Anyhow, even though I use Kester No-Clean the tips remain in good shape. Of course, I don't let the iron idle through a lunch hour and stuff like that.

snipped-for-privacy@comic.com (D from BC) wrote in news:tghih.505033$5R2.146756@pd7urf3no:

molten solder leaches metal away from the iron tip,that's what causes the tip to degrade,not the flux.

snipped-for-privacy@comic.com (D from BC) wrote in news:tghih.505033$5R2.146756@pd7urf3no:

clean

solder

adapters

molten solder leaches metal away from the iron tip,that's what causes the tip to degrade,not the flux.

I have been searching for a while for a decent recipe for iron plating soldering iron tips. I have a large collection of eroded Metcal tips. These are quite expensive and would be worth cleaning and re plating them in one go.

Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see: Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things)

void _-void-_ in the obvious place

On a sunny day (Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:49:00 GMT) it happened snipped-for-privacy@puntnl.niks (Nico Coesel) wrote in :

mmm last ersa I had the iron lasted a week.... :-) But that was long ago. Indeed I suspec ttips is big bussiness, many 'long life' tips start corroding rather fast at the not prepared end it seems. Yes I use them to weld plastics too ;-)

I have a Weller station and tips. Current tip has been in there for about 2 years now, and still looks fine. It's on for 10-20 hours a week at 350 deg C. I don't bother turning it off when I expect to be using it again, so on some days it stays on all the time. Sometimes I forget to turn it off, and it even stays on all night. The first time that happened, I noticed the tip had actually cleaned itself.

Occasionally I even use it to melt plastic or to fix hot-melt glue. I just wipe the tip off as best as I can, and leave it on for a few hours to clean itself. I have no special cleaners, and use regular tap water on the sponge.

Use "Savbit" solder, it is already saturated with copper and doesn't cause nearly as much erosion. With Weller TCP iron-plated bits and Savbit solder, I was getting over 200 days' use from each bit a few years ago when I was soldering for several hours a day.

Thats what I suspected: Weller makes you pay for their tips until you stop soldering.

On a sunny day (Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:32:01 GMT) it happened snipped-for-privacy@puntnl.niks (Nico Coesel) wrote in :

I have this one, it is great, switches off automatically, was only 65 Euro, and now is it its fifth year? Not sure.

Over night? I wouldn't do that.

While you mentioned tap water: In the US that is often heavily chlorinated. In our area the chlorine content can be higher than the pool water. So I use filtered water for the iron sponge.

I don't do that on purpose, but it has happened two or three times. However, it is sometimes on continuously during the day. I know it's not recommended, but after 2 years, the tip is still shiny and has good wettability. In fact, when I turn it off right after using it, it will start to accumulate black crud that is hard to remove later. When I leave it on, it apparently burns off all the crud.

I live in the Netherlands, and our tap water isn't chlorinated, or at least not to a level where you can detect it.

I don't ever recall seeing an iron clean itself. If left on and above 600 drgrees, I see my tips get black and form a very hard layer. I have a solder sucker iron that stays on about 800, and is terrible to clean. I usually use a brass sink cleaner or a watered sponge.

greg

It doesn't need to be - it's already been filtered through three Germans.

Sorry, I just don't believe this. Every Weller magnastat soldering iron I've used needed its tip replaced on a regular interval. After a while the tip just won't wet properly at some locations and this gets worse over time. If you use a big tip on big joints, this isn't a problem because in most cases you can find a spot that will wet. However when you use a very fine tip to solder 0.5mm SMT devices you'll find the tip will go bad (become useless) very quickly! This is why I throw out the Weller soldering stations whenever I can.