Hi all, When I said Wet sponge of cause I meant damp sponge and the iron is cleaned on the way back to the irons test, not on the way from the rest to joint being done. I did not to give a very detailed account of every action in the process of keeping the tip of the iron clean. But the original poster did say he had an iron was tip was so contaminated that the only way to clean it would be to take a file to it. The point I was making was it's very important to keep the irons tip clean. You could use loads of tip cleaner but that is not the best way as it is costly both money wise and in replacing tips. The job in hand is also contaminated by the strong cleaning compond used. In the past I have seen people use tip cleaner for every joint they make. The tip I have in my Weller 1301 is Only 8 years old, do you think it may win an award for long service. mind you it's now only used 2 days a week now as it's on my rework bench. but it's on for 48-46 hours. now saying that what's the odds it now fails at the next switch on.... I have done a lot of Ministry of Defence rework for a well known British company and you have to follow their rules. for example ESD, Work Shop practice, down to what is allowed in the shop and what's not. Soldering standards include things like if you replace a resistor you trim the lead to length before soldering, I have seen work rejected because someone cleared the pads inserted resistor soldered the resistor in circuit then cut off surplus lead length. so I think every job as to be done to the standards of the employer. Regards Art ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Harrison To: Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 11:16 AM Subject: Re: [EE]: Soldering - wet sponge On Mon, 16 Oct 2000 16:21:47 +1000, you wrote: >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. ..which is why you don't use a _wet_ sponge but a _moist one_ to avoid cooling the bit too much. The only pain is that it dries out fairly quickly. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.