How To Keep Soldering Tip Clean

Switch on the Soldering Station or the Iron and Make sure it is Hot Enough.

How to keep soldering tip clean. A pointed tip is for small joints a larger tip is for big joints and Chisel tips are used for drag soldering to remove excess solder as well as unbridging excess solder on ic chips. The best tip tinner is your solder--tips should always be coated with a small amount of solder. Never file the tip to clean it or form a different shape.

Melt some good quality of solder wire on the Tip. It will wear and tear the tip and will damage it. Copper is used because its an excellent heat conductor but if exposed to solder it will quickly dissolve into the solder.

Make sure you only clean it enough to wipe off the excess solder not to completely remove all the solder on the tip If tip looks oxidized wipe and tin tip. This is done by first ensuring the tip is clean and free of surface oxides. Ive been using a Hakko 936 soldering station since October now through many projects and the tip is still very intact almost as good as new.

Dont touch the grinded tip with your hands. If the tip is hot enough normally at least 300C and relatively free of rust the solder will flow up the tip and coat it. How I overcame this problem - was to place a variac in series with the electric soldering iron.

The tips are mostly copper with a protective iron plating and once that plating is pierced the tip will die quickly. 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. If your soldering tip becomes detinned oxidized it can be restored in a number of ways.

Always clean the tip of soldering iron using file or sandpaper after few major projects or whenever the tip turns black due to oxide formation. Solder if you get excess solder on tip clean it. 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.