By Charles Gantt( Oneslowz28 )
Warning: A soldering iron produces very high temperatures and can cause sever burns and even start fires. TheBestCaseScenario.com takes no responsibility for your personal safety if you chose to use this tutorial in your own project. Furthermore TheBestCaseScenario.com can not be held accountable for any damage to your person or property due to your use of this tutorial.
Cleaning your soldering iron tip
Lets start this tutorial by discussing your soldering iron. I prefer an adjustable temperature soldering iron but in practice, any iron that will get hot enough to melt solder will work for through hole soldering. However I do tend to shy away from butane (gas) irons and soldering guns (those big heavy things with a pistol grip. All soldering irons share a common enemy called Oxidation. Oxidation is the black crust your iron develops on its tip after use. This crust is like a mini insulation layer and will prevent solder from sticking to your iron and heat from transferring to wires or PCB traces. It is caused by several things including oxygen, burnt flux and overheated solder. It is not something you can avoid nor is it something you should fear because it is easy to remove. 90% of tip oxidation can be removed by a simple wipe on a damp solder sponge. 9% will require more forceful methods like stabbing a copper pot scrubber ball or using chemicals to burn off the oxidation. The final 1% can only be removed by abrasive methods which can destroy your tip if you do not know what you are doing. Today we are going to cover the first 99%.
This is what tip oxidation looks like. Its the black crust surrounding the solder ball and the black crust on the tip itself. This case is not as bad as your iron might be, but the methods for removal are still the same.
Assuming you have a
copper pot scrubber, lets go ahead and stab it in to clean off any stubborn oxidation and the solder ball. I usually stab the ball a few times rotating the iron once in.
Pull it out and check to see if it removed the big stuff. If not stab it again.
Now lets clean it some more on a very damp solder sponge. A solid sponge will work but I highly recommend one with a hole in the center. If yours does not have a hole in the center then cut one in it. You will thank me later.
Place the tip in the hole and drag it out making sure it slides along the edge of the hole. Rotate the iron and repeat the process.
The clean tip should look like this. Note that only the conical or working part of the tip need be shiny as it is all that you will be using. It is good practice to wipe your tip on the moist sponge after every few solder joints. I have gotten into the habit of it after every solder joint. This keeps my tips very clean.
Now we need to protect the tip from further oxidation. We do this by adding a small amount of solder to the tip. This is know as "Tinning". You should do this after every swipe on a sponge.
This is what a tinned tip looks like. Tinning the tip is something you will become very use to because you not only use it to protect your tip from oxidation, you also use it to help transfer heat to the component lead and PCB trace you are soldering together.