Best way to clean a soldiering iron tip ?

thenightrider

Hi what do others use to clean there iron's tip i need to do a bit of soldering but my tip just wont get hot as it needs to be cleaned my sponge is just not cleaning it is there any thing that people have around the house they use for cleaning there tip's

Maplin is mad money to buy anything so dont want to get something ther to clean it if i can

TouchingVirus

Cleaning with a sponge is a thing of the past for me. I used to lightly sand the tip but this isn't the best either as a heavy sanding can take off the coating on the tip.

I bought what is essentially a pot scourer made of brass wool from DealExtreme here which I use instead of a sponge now, it's way better. I also bought Solder Tip Refresher and have used it once or twice to restore a tip but be warned that if there is no stock with DX it can take a few months to get there. I ordered in March and it arrived in May

I also highly recommend using a tin of flux paste, one you can stab into with your iron and wipe in the brass wool cleaner. It's this two-move combo that stops me from using the Solder Tip Refresher except if I hit a bit of plastic and goop my tip

thenightrider

I seen that stuff on dx just havent goten around to geting it its one of those things when you need it you dont want to have to wait for it

Must get myself new tips for my iron ill just put them on my list of things to get at the end of my long finger

Rick Deckard

yeah, best to steer clear of sand paper.. best thing i found over the years, (for all metal finishing, not just soldering irons), is a green scowering pad.. while the iron is cooling.

docentore

steel wool. If you make a mess on your desk you can always use magnet

joker@

wet sponge is less complicated and cheapest solution

docentore

joker@ wrote: »

wet sponge is less complicated and cheapest solution

not really. It also cools down the tip and with the low wattage solder iron, like 15W which is the maximum one should use when working witch consoles it takes some time to heat it up back again.
As for the price, hmmm, that stuff from DX costs less than 5er delivered.

joker@

Sure when you using half amateur solder gun,its always takes 4min to back to solder temperature

TouchingVirus

joker@ wrote: »

Sure when you using half amateur solder gun,its always takes 4min to back to solder temperature

Lowering the temperature of the soldering iron puts extra load on the iron and the circuits supplying it with power. It's a shoddy, cheap way to clean an iron and it does not get rid of all contaminants