Proper soldering iron tip care

[tooki]

Just found this video Ersa made on the subject, seems comprehensive and above all, says what not to do, too.

[tooki]

And here's a similar guide from Weller, posted not long after Ersa's.

Part 1:




Part 2:

[GreyWoolfe]

I didn't know I was cleaning my tips wrong in the brass wool.  Good set of videos.

[ChrisLX200]

I always find the pronuciation of soldering ('soul-dering') as 'sod-ering' grates on my ears. Or is it just me?

[tooki]

I always find the pronuciation of soldering ('soul-dering') as 'sod-ering' grates on my ears. Or is it just me?

Please, let one single video about soldering by an American go without bringing up that tired old argument. Literally every. single. soldering. video. by an American has its comments polluted with a thousand Brits whining about “soddering”. Do me a personal favor and have that discussion elsewhere. Much obliged.

I didn't know I was cleaning my tips wrong in the brass wool.  Good set of videos.

Yep, same here!!!

[ChrisLX200]

Quote from: tooki on Today at 06:21:46 AM>Quote from: ChrisLX200 on Today at 05:55:52 AM

I always find the pronuciation of soldering ('soul-dering') as 'sod-ering' grates on my ears. Or is it just me?

Please, let one single video about soldering by an American go without bringing up that tired old argument. Literally every. single. soldering. video. by an American has its comments polluted with a thousand Brits whining about “soddering”. Do me a personal favor and have that discussion elsewhere. Much obliged.


And here was me thinking it was new..   I had no idea the subject had been much discussed/abused in the past. LOL., I won't mention it again as you clearly answered the question!

[tooki]

And here was me thinking it was new..   I had no idea the subject had been much discussed/abused in the past. LOL., I won't mention it again as you clearly answered the question!

Thank you and you’re welcome! It’s just sad that so many soldering video comments get derailed by the same discussion, which usually devolves into a pissing match.

[KL27x]

And here was me thinking it was new..   I had no idea the subject had been much discussed/abused in the past. LOL., I won't mention it again as you clearly answered the question!

Sod-er-ing is the proper pronunciation, pretty much everywhere in America, AFAIK. Using any other pronunciation would be disrespecting my 3rd grade English teacher.

Most annoying thing to me is people raised in America who fake an accent. I knew a guy who always pronounced V as W and W as V. This is done, like nowhere. In some places, they get mixed up and/or combined a bit, but a 100% reversal is pretty obviously a shit fake accent.

[bitseeker]

Ah, the beauty of the Internet — my English vocabulary and pronunciation, although natively American, becomes more heterogeneous as time goes on.

[KL27x]

This I honestly don't know. "Hack-o" or "hake-o?"

[buck converter]

This I honestly don't know. "Hack-o" or "hake-o?"

aaadafruit or Ayedafruit

[M4trix]

What was this thread about ? 

[tooki]

This I honestly don't know. "Hack-o" or "hake-o?"

Seeing that the company is Japanese, it's almost guaranteed to be "hack-o". (Indeed, only in English is "hake-o" even remotely a viable pronunciation of hakko. In nearly all other languages, it'd be "hack-o".)

This I honestly don't know. "Hack-o" or "hake-o?"

aaadafruit or Ayedafruit

"Ey-duh fruit". Named after the nickname, Ladyada, of its founder (Limor Fried), itself paying respect to Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer. The name Ada is pronounced "ey-duh", so there you have it. (Or you can just watch any of adafruit's videos, they say their name now and then )

What was this thread about ? 

Sirloin tips or something.

[nanofrog]

What was this thread about ? 

Sirloin tips or something.

Stop it! You're making me hungry.   

Oh, and I was using the brass wool incorrectly as well so good to know.

[frozenfrogz]

The discussion on why Americans ate the l in soldering is a waste of time, since the only official word to keep in mind is »löten« (full stop, exclamation mark).!
By the technique of »löten« you produce objects called »Gelöt«, while the person doing the »Löterei« is called »Löterich« or »Löterine«, sometimes also called »Löticus« (archaic, magniloquent). However, »löten« has more than one meaning in the native language of the arts of »Löterei«. It may be used to describe the act of jointing two pieces of metal (»Lötlinge«, sometimes also used to describe the descendants of at least a »Löterich« or »Löterine« or both, following the golden path of »Löterei«) by use of a different molten metal, called »Lot« or: Drinking a couple of beers until you reach the state of »Tüdelüt«. See origins: »Lötlampe«, »die Lampe an haben«,...

Thought you might be interested

[tooki]

The discussion on why Americans ate the l in soldering is a waste of time, since the only official word to keep in mind is »löten« (full stop, exclamation mark).!
By the technique of »löten« you produce objects called »Gelöt«, while the person doing the »Löterei« is called »Löterich« or »Löterine«…

I really don't think it's very kind to call a woman who löts a latrine!

[kalel]

I can say from experience that after I've learned about tinning the iron's tip each time after unplugging it (or just before) - I haven't had any issues at all. I'm not doing soldering every day, but I haven't had any problems since then (I have had issues before learning those basics).

I've used both the brass wool and wet sponge for actual cleaning during soldering, none seemed to cause any damage.

[bitseeker]

For some reason, the brass brush didn't occur to me before. I'll have to get one to keep handy.

The tip rejuvinator seems to work amazingly well. I'll have to get some of that too.

[KL27x]

For some reason, the brass brush didn't occur to me before. I'll have to get one to keep handy.

I use a brass tube cut at a slant to scrape off the burnt residue. Like the video shows, always go in the right direction, so you don't catch the edge of the thin chrome plating. This is also the reason I wipe the tip in the brass wool, not jab it. Well, that, plus jabbing/twisting doesn't do anything. So I disagree with the Ersa vid about the brass wool. Removing the residue from the tip is a lot like removing dried glue from a knife.... the fastest and easiest way to do that is to carefully plane/scrape it off with another knife. On the solder iron tip, you want to avoid even the tiniest scratches, though, because the chrome plating is so thin. This is why a brass tube has been doing the job for me. For many years, no damage.

The tip rejuvinator seems to work amazingly well. I'll have to get some of that too.

I have long been proponent of using mild abrasive over chemical cleaners. The Weller vid shows the "polishing bar" as the first option over the tip cleaner/tinner compound. I agree. If the tip is dying, you have to remove the oxidized/contaminated iron. And there's plenty of good iron underneath. If you clean it with ammonium chloride, you are re-contaminating it. The chloride/halide embeds in iron. This is why you can't clean rust off of your tools with HCl, no matter how dilute (well, you can, but it will flash rust again). But acetic or phosphoric acid are great at this (but they promote a different kind of oxide; abrasion is the best way on a solder iron tip). If you use a fine abrasive on the tip, you just have to keep away from the chrome.

Funny the number of people who think polishing doesn't remove metal. Half the world has read the bullshit description of some namebrand polish and believe it reverses the metal oxide and turns it back into the base metal.

[woody]

Nice video.

I remember once having a discussion on how to install the sponge. In this video it is 'up-side down' where a lot of people use it the other way around. My current (JBC) sponge does not have a 'down' side; it is made from the same material throughout.

And watching the changing of the tips did me re-appreciate the way that this is done in my iron; just pull it out using the stand and plug another tip in the same way. Hot, cold, no problem. So much better than mucking around with pliers and a hot tip that needs to be placed right-side-up in the stand 

[bitseeker]

Funny the number of people who think polishing doesn't remove metal. Half the world has read the bullshit description of some namebrand polish and believe it reverses the metal oxide and turns it back into the base metal.

Oh, my!

[KL27x]

Quote from: KL27x on Yesterday at 08:02:27 PM

Funny the number of people who think polishing doesn't remove metal. Half the world has read the bullshit description of some namebrand polish and believe it reverses the metal oxide and turns it back into the base metal.




Oh, my!

Yep... Being an American and having grown up in hick country, I have some interest in firearms. The majority of firearms I have owned, I have taken apart as far as possible, just to understand how they work. For several years, I was active on some related forums. There's a stereotype that firearms enthusiasts are not the brightest bulbs in the shed. And my own experience says that this is an understatement. I have pretty much given up on this kind of forum, but one of the most amusing threads I have ever witnessed involved a half dozen firearms experts trying to use physics to explain how a recoil operated firearm works. Anyhow, to the subject, I recall trying to explain how Flitz actually DOES remove metal. If I rub some people the wrong way on this forum, just imagine my attitude on a gun forum, lol.

Even my GF was explaining to me (while twisting my arm to have our marble floors polished) how they have a process for rebuilding the damaged stone. I am curious what they actually used, which cost us a thousand bucks. I have had good success doing spot repairs with 2000 grit wet/dry followed by chrome-ox powder. But it's not quite the same level of shine. I am guessing maybe cerium oxide?

[bitseeker]

Marble restoration: Floor leveler with quartz powder mixed in?

[frozenfrogz]

I don’t know about marble, but for sand stone there is a technique that allows to rebuild the stone with the help of a substrate and an algae or bacteria. The micro organism digests the substrate and a calcification process transforms the substrate into an artificial stone structure. With this it is possible to let pieces of sand stone "grow" back together. I am not an expert here, it is something a friend told me. He is a stonemason at Cologne cathedral. Sadly I can not remember the name of that process. Maybe something similar exists for other types of stone also.
Because of economic reasons however, two component epoxy and a filler from ground marble might be the go to solution for "commercial" restoration.

[helius]

I have long been proponent of using mild abrasive over chemical cleaners. The Weller vid shows the "polishing bar" as the first option over the tip cleaner/tinner compound. I agree. If the tip is dying, you have to remove the oxidized/contaminated iron. And there's plenty of good iron underneath. If you clean it with ammonium chloride, you are re-contaminating it. The chloride/halide embeds in iron. This is why you can't clean rust off of your tools with HCl, no matter how dilute (well, you can, but it will flash rust again). But acetic or phosphoric acid are great at this (but they promote a different kind of oxide; abrasion is the best way on a solder iron tip). If you use a fine abrasive on the tip, you just have to keep away from the chrome.

Not all tip tinners contain ammonium chloride, at least according to their safety data sheets.
The Plato TT-95 has an active ingredient of phosphoric acid diammonium salt. This will not leave halide residues (although realistically, all activated fluxes contain halides and they are removed with normal tip care). Use care, though: most tip tinner MSDS that I researched do not list their active ingredient, as it is judged to be nonharmful in the mixture provided. It is safe to assume that phosphates and ammonium are common components but the presence of halides cannot be excluded.