Kevin, John is correct, the buildup is oxidation and corrosion. Unchecked, the skin covering the solder iron tip will eventually be eaten away, exposing the core. The core is impossible to solder with. This problem is kept to a mininum by cleaning, then wetting the tip occasionally with a small amount of solder. You don't need to be constantly re-tinning, just often enough to keep the oxidation down. I always give the iron a few cleaning swipes prior to doing the actual solder work. A clean shiny tip is what you need for effective solder work. You'll get the hang of it after a while. I tin occasionally while using the iron. I also tin liberally just before allowing the iron to cool. It will be last much longer and work much better. Also, I find the wire pads work better than wet sponges for tip cleaning. They remove oxidation and crud very well. You want to expose the tip, which can then be tinned more effectively. I don't know anyone else who sells these besides Hakko. Look for it on their website www.hakkousa.com. It is the model 599 tip cleaner. Seems like a lot of money but it really has reduced my aggravation. I've had a few occasions where I absolutely needed to solder only to find the nearest iron had a crudded, corroded tip. You can take a sharp object to the tip skin sometimes to get a barely working surface. Just don't expect it to live long with that kind of rough treatment. Hope this helps. -Greg ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 5:05 PM Subject: [EE]: Soldering Help > Hi, > > I have checked a few sites on the net for soldering > help, but don't see the answer to my problem. I am using > a 30 W iron from Radio Shack, and rosin core solder. The > problem is the tip gets a build up on it after a few uses > and no longer conducts heat. How do I prevent this ? I > realize this is probably a trivial question to the pros, > but I didn't see anything on the web on how to prevent > this or what I am doing wrong. > > Thanks in advance, > Kevin > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads