Storing that damn soldering iron.

[Geooorge again]

Hi, total newbie here. I'm not a an engineer, not even a hobbyist one. I just have a cheapy soldering station for the odd job of soldering a cap or fixing something.
And i'm always curious on how to store the thing for long term. In some places i've seen the "tin it and save it" and on others the "wipe it clean". Heck i'll put it in the freezer in the end.

[CrashO]

Clean and Tin it before storing. Then clean before use and retin.

[Tandy]

Wipe the tip clean on a damp sponge to remove all the gunk and then lightly tin the tip. Don't try cleaning with abrasive such as wire wool or sand paper
as most tips consist of a copper base material, plated with iron to prevent erosion and abrasives will remove the coating exposing the base metal.

[Geooorge again]

Thanks. And yes, my tip is copper plated, i'm only using a soft sponge.

[compet17]

Copper plated? Normally the cheap tips are made of copper with NO coating. Get an iron plated copper tip, it will last almost forever. Unplated copper tips will dissolve rather quickly in contact with tin and lead, no matter how good you care.

The benefit of pure copper tips is that they can be cut, filed and sanded into any form until there is nothing left.

I clean my tips on a moist (not too wet) sponge and then I switch the iron off. Never had problems.

[Geooorge again]

It's a soldering station from Velleman. For 25 euro i thought it would be a cheap knockoff knowing that stations usually go for 3-4 times as much?

[compet17]

I would recommend the Weller WS81 station which I have at home. It has 80 Watt power and heats up in 10 sec. Of course it is a bit more expensive at Euro 300.-
But you can use the tips for many many years without worrying about procedures. And there is a wide choice of tips for any application.

[ConKbot]

If the iron isnt in your hand, then it should have a decent sized blob of solder on the tip, hot or cold.  If you have a lot of solder on the tip while its hot, then the solder will oxidize instead of the tip, so you can easily wipe it away, add a small amount of solder to tin the iron to do your joint, wipe it to get any crud from the pcb off, re-tin it with the blob and put it back in the holder.  Turn it off/unplug it, let it cool with the blob on there, and its still there when you turn it back on.