Forget the wire brush. One of the best items I've found for cleaning the slag off the tip of a Weller 8200 gun is an old cellulose dish-washing sponge that is bone dry. Just hold the Weller tip over the trash can and run the end of the sponge across the sides of the tip. For irons, just wipe the tip on the surface of the sponge.

Also good to try

medium grade steel wool

phosphoric acid - a quick dip and a wipe

I often have to undo old 'dirty' solder, big blobs that have oil, grease or even sealant on them, so I sometimes need to scrub down the tip rather than just clean solder off.

Reading this got me to thinking- I really don't know how many years I had had my tin of Mill-Rose. at least 20 years. Bought in a plumbing supply house, it's for sweating copper pipes. If I remember the content, it's zinc choride flux. I paid $2.50 for it?

Open the tin, stick the hot tip in, wipe off. Close tin. Done. If I am doing a fair amount of soldering, I usually use a damp paper towel folded up to wipe the hot tip on, so when it gets manky, I chuck it. Since I started using it, I found I went through a lot less tips. And after a dip and wipe, the tip doesn't need retinning.

John S.

I just started using a new (cheap 3M from wally world) 30W soldering iron to replace my old pistol-style soldering gun, which broke.

Ever since, it has been plagued with a buildup of dull gray crud that is near impossible to remove. Am I cleaning it wrong or something? I used to give the old one a wipe over a damp sponge - this isn't working on the new iron, though - I just can't get rid of the crud. I never had this problem with the old iron, is it the tip or something???

If there is no plating or crappy plating you'll have this problem.

Depending on the amount of use, you might consider getting a quality Ungar or Weller iron. Cheap costs more in the long run.

Also, what kind of solder are you using?

These new-world soldering tip cleaners get huge marks from most everyone:

http://www.amazon.com/Hakko-Cleaner-599 ... y_hi_img_b

I'm using Radio Shack rosin-core solder. I bought a new roll, to see if that was the problem, but that didn't change anything.

I DID see a slight improvement switching from a sponge, to a damp paper towel.

Are the Weller irons sold in Home Depot decent quality?

I use a DIY version of that.....
One of those metal scrubbies meant for pots and pans in a tin can

All these years!!!

Well folks, I guess what you use to wipe with (the iron) depends on the tip material. I refuse to work with anything except copper and an old dry sponge costs nothing. It works for the Weller 8200 gun as well. You just hold the gun over a waste basket, pull the trigger, and then use the end of the sponge in a wiping/flicking motion. And, of course, for de-soldering terminals you can't beat Solder Wick. Trim all the wire away from the terminal or tube socket pin as close as possible then place the copper braid between the joint and iron tip. The heat then sucks the solder into the copper braid. Once 99% of the solder is gone, you can unwrap the wire fragments with long nose pliers.

Some sponges have chemicals applied to them to keep them fresh after getting their first use. this can foul a tip. Try a different sponge and rinse it out good before using. A tip tinner helps with keeping the iron in shape.

I used to clean my old blow lamp heated soldering bits and the later electric irons with a block of Sal Ammoniac.
Worked well.
(Geez- this sure dates me huh?)

Now I use a rag, damp sponge, pants leg , (Just not polyester) or whatever.
I still have a huge scar on my leg from hot solder falling on my polyester pants, melting it and sticking to my leg.

I've just got around to reading some of the stuff I picked up at the MARC Extravaganza. In volume 4 of the Sylvania Service Hints booklet there's this item Improved Tinning for Soldering Iron:



Granted, this is aimed at soldering irons, but I wonder how it would work on the Weller 8200-series tips?

John

I use a two fold approach. First I use the Hakko "brass sponge" then a quick wipe on a wet sponge. The tip is always clean and shines afterwards.

Frank- that really dates you AND me! You met my Dad and- no kidding, I remember growing up using my dad's soldering gear and the box always contained a chunk of that stuff... 2 to 1 if we looked in the box today, that chunk is probably still there.

Sam

I use the brass sponge thing. I bought a couple dozen years ago on Ebay real cheap. They look like they might be made from shavings from some milling operation. I just stuff one in a tin can and jab my TC-201 in it and go. I have been using the same tip for several years now, I can't wear this sucker out I also use them to clean tube pins on the older tubes, just jab them into one of these a few times.

Plumbers flux paste or killed acid flux is about the best stuff I've found for tinning an iron coated tip for my Antex iron.

It's easy to make the killed acid flux it's just hydrochloric acid with as much zinc as it will take dissolved in it - just be careful if you plan on making it, and make sure you wash off every trace of it if you plan to use it as a flux as it WILL slowly rot your freshly soldered joint if you don't.

As a small money saving tip, if you have any old RG58 or similar coaxial cable to hand, strip out the centre core, and remove the braid as one long length, dip the end into some plumbers flux and let it seep well into the braid. This is better than even the most expensive desoldering braid since plumbers flux is very much better than resin based fluxes - just remember that it's vital to clean your work after you've used this flux with it, it WILL turn all the copper its left in contact with into a green powder.

Wire wool and abrasive papers also work well but your tip won't last very long at all, you'll take off the thin iron coating and then the solder will eat away at the copper until it's useless.

I LOVE the idea of running some silver solder over a bare copper tip to stop the solder eating into it, now that's genius!

I'd be very careful with steel wool on the workbench. It will shed and some of those conductive hair-like pieces will invariably find their way into something and let out its magic smoke.

Back when I use to use the cheap low end soldering irons, they came with equally cheap tips. Those tips, and homemade ones, made from heavy gauge copper wire, would erode on relatively short order. So I would have to reshape the tip with a file, followed by tinning the copper tip. Between filings, I'd just wipe the tip clean with a damp paper towel.

Once I started using quality (read more money) irons, with better tips, they erode at much, much slower rate. I don't take a file to them. Just put on a new tip. Those I clean with steel wool, then tin the tip. Still wipe clean with a damp paper towel, in between. If I pay attention, and damp wipe regularly, while the iron is hot, I won't have to clean and tin the tip, but once a week. Iron is on every day.

I don't mate well with those big guns, with the trigger, and lights, so I don't know if the same rules apply. Those go thru repeated heating and cool down cycles. My short attention span can't deal with that, even if its only a couple of seconds. With a regular iron, I just take a bathroom break, after plugging it in, and its usually hot, when I get back.

Red,

That's why I use my Edsyn - heats up from a dead start in about 30-34 seconds.
It's still a "pencil" style iron, but it's a great tool. I have one at work too as
my day-in, day-out, soldering instrument. Easy tip changes too.

Chuck