Arthur Brown wrote:
>
> Hi Lindsay,

> One of the most important things is the Tip must be kept clean use a wet
> sponge and if your tip is copper replace with an iron plated one, this will
> last longer. use the tin of tip cleaner sparingly as it's very corrosive.
>
> Regards Art


Oh, no! I can see this might start a big flame war but here goes.
We stopped using "wet sponge" in the workshops here about 10 years
back, it's just not the best method. Cooling the tip from 350 degrees
down to 20 degrees over and over causes metal fatigue and porosity
of the tip, and a porous tip (ie, rough, lots of tiny holes etc)
is no good to solder with.

I have had regular fights with my apprentices who have just finished
soldering/hand tools (yr1 subject) over this. They get taught the "wet
sponge" stuff by the teacher so it must be right! ;o)

The system we use in the two workshops here is the "solder blob"
method, basically it replaces the wet sponge with a big solder
blob. When the tip gets dirty, you apply fresh solder, give the
core flux a second to do it's job and then wipe it on the solder
blob. All the crud gets wiped onto the blob, which grows in size.
The tip gets clean and polished.

This has a lot of advantages. Doesn't make steam, doesn't cause
tempering damage to the tip from rapid cooling, no constant wetting
of the sponge is needed, and the best benefit is that the tip is
slowly polished by the rubbing against metal (solder blob), and
after a few weeks like this the tips get really good, because they
are non-porous and polished all the crud wipes straight off and
wetting is excellent. We get 3 times the life from tips now compared
to the old days. It's quicker, little/no re-heat time needed, as
the tip doesn't cool much. There is also always some residue flux
left in your big solder blob, so rubbing the tip on this blob causes
great cleaning.

I cringe when I have to use another iron that sees "wet sponge"
usage. It really is a step backward. I also hate using new tips,
knowing it will be a couple of weeks before it gets polished enough
to give good performance like the old ones did.

For the record, I like the Weller magnetic type irons, good steel
jacket tips. We only have to replace them when they get arc damage
from soldering charged caps (we've all done it!) as with the
solder blob method they don't wear out.
-Roman

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