Improve Your Soldering Iron 70% !

Plumber.

Jeroen Belleman

Nah, lead free solder. He's a tinker.

Years ago, before temperature controlled irons, I put a switch in the power cord with a single rectifier across the contacts. That way I could turn the iron down but still have it ready to heat up quickly.

Cheers

We used to use Variacs.

Yep. In college (I was a tech, working for the university) we built Variacs into the base of our irons.

I don't think my Hakko would appreciate that though. :)

Tim

-- Seven Transistor Labs Electrical Engineering Consultation Website:

Idiot. Never file a tip. A fullwave bridge will have about a 1V drop.

Recently I looked into what metal the iron tips used. For the Aoyue I use, it is iron. For the weller I have, it is copper. Iron of course does not conduct heat as well as copper. I think they avoid copper because it is hard to machine, weak, and dissolves in the solder slo wly. This may be part of the problem with these irons. I machine lead-free brass, but don't know if solder wets it well. jb

Soldering tips are iron plated copper.

Solder metal reacts with copper, causing the tip to be slowly eroded away if the iron plating comes off.

Of course, if you start filing your tip, you remove the iron plating, exposing bare copper. In other words: Filing the tip is only a last resort if the tip is so bad that you need a new one anyway.

I added the diode across the tip activated contacts in my Weller. When the contact was open tip would still get half of the juice. The diode lengthened the "off" part of the duty cycle and extended the contact life. The transformer didn't mind.

hmmm The solder tips are solid iron tinned with solder. You can't plate iron. Either copper or iron should therefore tolerate filing.

"Older and very cheap irons typically use a bare copper tip, which is shaped with a file or sandpaper. This dissolves gradually into the solder, suffering pitting and erosion of the shape. Copper tips are sometimes filed when worn down. Iron-plated copper tips have become increasingly popular since the 1980s. Because iron is not readily dissolved by molten solder, the plated tip is more durable than a bare copper one, though it will eventually wear out and need replacing. This is especially important when working at the higher temperatures needed for modern lead-free solders. Solid iron and steel tips are seldom used because they store less heat, and rusting can break the heating element."

Google had over 1.4 Million hits; these were on the first page.

Tips

Older and very cheap irons typically use a bare copper tip, which is shaped with a file or sandpaper. This dissolves gradually into the solder, suffering pitting and erosion of the shape. Copper tips are sometimes filed when worn down. Iron-plated copper tips have become increasingly popular since the 1980s. Because iron is not readily dissolved by molten solder, the plated tip is more durable than a bare copper one, though it will eventually wear out and need replacing. This is especially important when working at the higher temperatures needed for modern lead-free solders. Solid iron and steel tips are seldom used because they store less heat, and rusting can break the heating element.

Most iron tips today are a copper core surrounded by iron, hence the term 'iron clad' that is then nickel or chrome plated. Because solder won't stick to nickel or chrome the plating on the chisel end of the tip is removed to expose the iron cladding. Solder does stick to iron.

I'm sure you would trust Metcal:

The Weller WTCP tips are copper, plated with iron all over, then plated with nickel and chrome back of the tip, and the exposed iron plating at the tip is pre-tinned with RoHS-compliant solder.

That's why they don't rust.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I have been having this idea a while now, that when my iron plated tip finally starts to show up those nasty black holes again, I will try file it back in shape and then silver brasse it, hopefully to keep the coper from oxidizing that fast. I'm not at all sure if it will work. It just seems that brassed copper seems to oxidize less than bare kopper. Maybe someone already tried?

Cheers,

Buy a new bit :-?

Absolutely a valid solution, but one needs to have some fun sometimes to ;-) and the bit in my case cost U$100,- so if it works it's certainly worth the effort.

Seems to last a long while those bits though, automatic heat reduction when not in use and so on..

Gee...i run mine (32 W) with a light dimmer set at 70 percent; makes it ideal almost always.

I'd suggest that. Start with an iron that's too hot and cool it with a dimmer. Lasts a lot longer than the other way around.

Josephkk, if this comment is not from you, I apologize in advance.

I can see now that no one wanted to download the large PDF file from Newark and Metcal.

So here is a link to just the relevant diagram that everyone wants to ignore.

Please look it over and put this discussion to rest.

hamilton

PS: If you want the history and where the industry has been and where is going, please look at the entire pdf file.

or the original site I found it via google:

The figure above is from page 2 (sheet 3) of that pdf file.

hamilton