Soldering Tips Rework

Yep used files and sand paper for the first part of my career. Then re-tin them after scrapping away the gunk and old metal

Hi

Yeah, if it is an ordinary copper tip, you can file it flat and true again (if it is a chisel point), re-tin it with a good quality solder and it will be as good as new except for some reduced mass. You could also change its profile (for instance to a tapered point or whatever is suitable for your application and power) as the metal is used up.

Some tips are made of cast iron and they are a little more difficult to rejuvenate but the key is still to get the metal clean and shaped as you want it and then well tinned. That's what I know about it.

Lonnie

Get the iron plated tips. They last a lot longer as the iron does not dissolve in the solder like copper does.

Use regulated temperature irons to keep the temperature from going to extreme peaks on an unused iron. Those with an adjustable control are best

BUT, beware of breaking the iron plating. No sandpaper, files, steel wool, or the plating is soon gone. A good cleaner is stearic acid, which acts as a high temperature acid flux, but at room temp is not acidic at all.

A tiny 1" solder pot is ideal for dipping and cleaning irons with flux.

Aurizon

Thank you for the good info on iron plated tips. I didn't know that the iron was only a thin plated surface--thus my comment to the original post is not very good advice. I have never actually tried to reshape one of those tips but I have cleaned and re-tinned them many times. It has seemed to me that the heat transfer was not as good on those tips and I assumed it was because they were an iron alloy rather that copper--different heat transfer characteristic and less mass perhaps? What are your thoughts.

My work does not involve assembly line high volume production and is often in less than optimal environmental conditions and it has always seemed to me that the iron tips required more time/wattage to do the same job.

Recently I have been in need of a constant temp rig but the volume isn't there to justify the cost I'm seeing in the catalogs. Do you (or anyone else) have any thoughts about home brewing a power supply for my dear old Weller pencils?

Lonnie

temperature regulation is a must for long tip life since the rate of reactions doubles for each 10 degree C increase in temperature. Overheated iron tips become unwetted = bad thermal conductivity.

Once the iron is broken the solder leaches out hollows under the plating, like tooth cavities

Full list price stuff is costly, but Ebay can be your friend

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=soldering+station&category0=

do the same search on completed items and you will get a good idea. Read shipping terms and the feedback in advance. Bad guys have higher than warranted freight charges and also have above 1% or so neg feedback

This problem will get worse with lead free solder. The fluxes are a lot more aggressive, and will eat through the tips pretty quickly, even the iron plated ones. We sell tips that are good for about 50K joints with standard solder wires, but only 25-30K with lead free.

We're investigating the possibility of sending them to China for replating, since once you start reducing mass you lose the consistency of the process. The heat cycle on a non-adjustable soldering iron is horrible for your process control.

I would look to replate the tips instead of just tinning if you're going to be doing any production quantities.

I do this all the time: weld copper wire to the tip to reclaim the shape- using oxy-acetylene- don,t even need flux-then file or grind to desired profile- tin, & your,re in business!. As to iron plated tips, they are definitely slower to heat, & still burn away under the plating itseems.