tinning after using the soldering iron?

[GoatZero]

Im afraid i dont understand tinning, i have read the theory, seen lots of videos, but theres always people doing the opposite to what the last one i saw did,

Is tinning only supposed to be done when i turn on the soldering iron?

I have seen some people that TIN the soldering iron AFTER they are done using the soldering iron, and they leave it like that for days, covered in solder, you can even some yellow stuff that i suppose its the remains of the flux, when they turn it on they just clean the solder off the tip and start soldering

which one is the right one?

[mariush]

A hot solder iron tip will oxidize.  The tip is made out of copper (and maybe nickel and other metals) and there's a tin plating on top to protect the copper from oxiding.

When tip stays in the air, the tin is oxidized, dirty and so on. When you start the iron after a long pause, you want to remove the top layer of tin that got oxidized because you don't want to mix the solder with the impurities on the tip. However, if you keep removing micro-layers of tin from the plating, eventually you'd get to the copper and damage the tip.
So it's a good idea to add some "sacrificial" solder to the tip before you turn it off. That extra solder will protect the tip and its tin plating and can be removed when you start working again with the iron.

Therefore .. start iron , wait to heat up, clean solder left on tip before you turned it off previously, add a bit of fresh solder so that the tip won't oxidize as you keep the iron idle and also to increase surface area between the iron tip and whatever you want to heat up.
Before you turn it off, add some solder to the tip so that you'll have something to remove when you start working again.

Watch this as well:



and this from about 1:00 (a bit exagerrated, but he solders according to some stricter standards) :



and this from about 6:20 (if you don't want to watch it all) :



Pay attention to how he works with the soldering iron.

[Nerull]

Im afraid i dont understand tinning, i have read the theory, seen lots of videos, but theres always people doing the opposite to what the last one i saw did,

Is tinning only supposed to be done when i turn on the soldering iron?

I have seen some people that TIN the soldering iron AFTER they are done using the soldering iron, and they leave it like that for days, covered in solder, you can even some yellow stuff that i suppose its the remains of the flux, when they turn it on they just clean the solder off the tip and start soldering

which one is the right one?

For maximum tip life, a tip should be cleaned and retinned every time it is returned to the holder. This includes when you are done for the day.

A layer of solder on the surface protects the tip from oxidation. The outer layer of a soldering tip is iron, and if you clean the tip without retinning it will rust when exposed to air. Once the iron is pitted through to the copper the tin in solder will start bonding with it and carrying it away, leading to rapid pitting and a ruined tip.

[zapta]

For maximum tip life, a tip should be cleaned and retinned every time it is returned to the holder. This includes when you are done for the day.

I do it when I take it out of the holder to solder, this is when I need it to be clean.  Since I am an occasional hobbyist, I don't worry much about tip longevity.

[GoatZero]

So if i understood well (in my own words)

The tip must be always covered in solder except when

I use it to actually solder, thats when i put it out of the holder, clean it, Retin so heat can transfer easily then start soldering

After im done soldering, i turn it off and with the remaining heat in the tip, i tin the tip (cover it in solder), this will keep oxigen out, and keep the tip shinny

keep it like that until the next time i solder,

did i get something wrong, im not sure where did i read that the flux in the solder was corrosive thats why i was getting confused, so i have nothing to worry about the yellow stuff that remains around the solder in the tip??

[Nerull]

Flux is corrosive, which is why you don't want to feed solder onto the tip while soldering, however when you just use a little solder to tin the tip the flux burns off rapidly and isn't a real problem anymore.

[GoatZero]

Flux is corrosive, which is why you don't want to feed solder onto  tip while soldering, ever when you just use a little solder to tin  tip  flux burns off rapidly and isn't a real problem anymore.

Now everything makes sense, thanks a lot for al the videos and feedback i think i finally get it now

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

I have seen some people that TIN the soldering iron AFTER they are done using the soldering iron

I learnt this the hard way, when I started I used to clean the tip on the sponge after every use, and especially before turning off.
After a while most of the tip refused to take solder.
Finally I cottoned on to the fact that this was my own fault.