It's hard to tell from a picture but it looks a bit like the iron plating has flaked off in places exposing the metal underneath. There is also a remarkable lack of flux residue and discoloration around the neck. The tip looks for all the world as if it has never seen any solder or flux...
The only solder this one has seen was lead-free, although it did have a flux core. I think you're right about the iron plating flaking off which I assume makes it not repairable.
Yeah, that tip looks stuffed. I don't think you'll be able to fix that.
As IanB said, the coating looks to have burnt/worn/corroded off.
That's the kind of thing you might see happening to a tip if plumbers solder, or anything with non electronic flux, was used with it.
You said you only recently started soldering, where did you get the solder your using from?
If someone gave it to you it may not actually be electronic solder.
Post a pic of the reel and we can probably confirm.
This was the first tip I started using when I bought my first soldering station, so I've made quite a few mistakes with it. At the time this soldering station seemed like a good value but it getting it was a bit risky being that it's from a relatively unknown brand and it appears replacing just one tip will cost $30 USD.
I think this is electronic solder and likely lead-free. A few tubes like the one shown below came with a cheap PC repair toolkit I bought but they were unmarked and only listed as "solder reel" on the box.
hi
I use this kit:
http://uk.farnell.com/weller/0051512699/kit-tip-maintenance/dp/1378426
The brass wool is very efficient and provide a perfect cleanning.
I recently bought a brass wool tip cleaner and it does seem better at cleaning the tip than the sponge.
Clean and then tin your tip each time you pick the iron up or before you put it down. The iron should NEVER be in the stand without a tinned tip (I.e. never wipe it on the sponge and put it in the holder). That way the solder on the surface oxidizes, rather than the tip itself.
I've been doing this totally wrong the whole time then. After soldering something, I would first clean it off using a wet sponge then place it back in the holder for sometimes long periods of time. To make things worse, the temperature was often set very high while it sat there without being tinned. I'll be sure to tin the tip before putting it back from now on.
That tip looks like it has been seriously over heated and exposed to water which has blasted off the iron plating, it could also be the result of poor plating in the first place so may be nothing to do with the user other than buying a cheap tip in the first place. I would bin that one and get some new ones of known quality, then only use leaded solder don't bother with lead free until you feel confident with your soldering, learning to solder with lead free is a bit like trying to learn to ride a bike with a pack full of bricks on your back.
Between using cheap lead-free solder, minimal flux, high temperatures for long periods of time, cleaning the tip with a wet sponge and not tinning afterwards, I doubt this is the tip's fault. However it was manufactured by a relatively unknown brand, so that could also be a problem.
Looks like I've learned the hard way how to properly maintain a soldering iron tip but now I'm beginning to understand. Thanks again for the help everyone.
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