How To Clean Your Solder Iron Tip

This should lead to a clean shiny tip ready for use.

How to clean your solder iron tip. Clean and then tin your tip each time you pick the iron up or before you put it down. Push the soldering iron tip into the chemical cleaner until the entire rusted area is submerged. A solder pot may also be used to tin or re-tin your soldering iron tip.

When you are done for the day simply wipe clean as the iron is cooling and it will be ready to go the next time. Before soldering use alcohol and a clean cloth to remove contaminants such as grease corrosion and oxidation from the surface to be soldered. Now remove the tip and clean it with a moist sponge to remove the cleaner.

Leave for 4-5 Seconds and then Take out the Iron. To clean your tips use either brass or stainless steel wool. When pre-cleaning is necessary for plated tips they should be cleaned with a mildly abrasive emery cloth and may require an acid flux to remove the oxides before tinning or re-tinning.

New tips require an initial seasoning which is simply. A polyurethane foam bar with embedded abrasives which is used to polish the working end of the tip to remove surface oxides. Then immediately re-tin the tip with rosin core solder.

If some of the oxides are just sticking really well you could try to mildly abrade them on a brass sponge copper braid or similar but you cant be too hard or you will damage the iron plating good tips are typically copper core plated with iron then chromium everywhere but the. On a fine pointed tip this will be even more evident. Set the temperature of the soldering iron between 250C and 300C.

With the iron tip cold use a polishing bar. Insert the Tip in Good Quality Tip Tinner. You can tell your tip is clean when it appears bright and shiny.