Corroding sleeve on soldering iron

[slowbeard]

Hi guys,

Newbie at electronics here, been lurking for a while and tried to get my basic skills in order.

Read quite a bit about proper soldering technique and care (after destroying a tip on my first soldering session!).

I make sure to properly tin and clean my tip, which has been problem free since. However I've just noticed the sleeve (think that's the right term) has corroded - looks like copper from underneath is showing through

I've no idea what I might have done or not done to cause it. Any ideas? Can i fix it or do I need to replace it?

Thanks

[uncle_bob]

Hi

What ever the plating is on that part of the iron, it is not holding up well to the heat. From the looks of it, the plating may be tin. If it is, having it turn black like that is not at all un-expected.

Rather than replacing the parts on that iron, I'd suggest saving up for a bit better one. That or just live with it as it is. It looks ugly, but it will still work. Eventually it might corrode away. When it does (maybe in a few years) hopefully you have saved enough for the better one.

Bob

[slowbeard]

Hi

What ever the plating is on that part of the iron, it is not holding up well to the heat. From the looks of it, the plating may be tin. If it is, having it turn black like that is not at all un-expected.

Rather than replacing the parts on that iron, I'd suggest saving up for a bit better one. That or just live with it as it is. It looks ugly, but it will still work. Eventually it might corrode away. When it does (maybe in a few years) hopefully you have saved enough for the better one.

Bob

Cheers for the advice Bob, much appreciated!

Yep, my plan is to gradually get better gear as I go, so if I stick with it I'm planning to get a soldering station.

 other hobbies (photography, I'm looking at you) I seem to have smothered my enthusiasm by buying all the expensive gear immediately and never actually doing anything with it . I'm trying to earn my toys by putting the hours in this time!

[rrinker]

 I made it through many years using various size cheap soldering irons from Radio Shack, but after I bought my first temp controlled station about 9 years ago, I was banging my head against the wall wondering why I didn't invest in a good tool years ago. And it needn't be expensive, the Xytronics I have is about $50. But, if you can get good clean joints using the cheapy tools, you will only be that much better with a good one. Considering people made it work when a soldering iron was a heavy copper thing with a wooden handle you heated over a gas flame, any electrical iron is a huge leap and is quite capable of doing the job if you know how to use it and care for it.

[djQUAN]

Looks like Big Clive's old Antex iron.

[DimitriP]

Is it the same on the other side ?
Maybe it's getting slammed against the spring of the base and the coating started rubbing off ?
Sand it lightly so it doesn't look "diseased" and as long as the tip is doing a good job, keep using it.
I like yellow handle irons

[slowbeard]

Looks like Big Clive's old Antex iron.

Nicely spotted, it is indeed the very same!

[slowbeard]

Is it the same on the other side ?
Maybe it's getting slammed against the spring of the base and the coating started rubbing off ?
Sand it lightly so it doesn't look "diseased" and as long as the tip is doing a good job, keep using it.
I like yellow handle irons

I think that's it - the back side isn't corroded at all. I think maybe the spring holder isn't quite the right size for my iron.  I sometimes have to fiddle with it to get it to stay, so presumably have been grinding it away on the spring.

Thanks again folks!

[karoru]

As long as the tip stays OK I wouldn't care. It's a piece of metal that gets heated to 300 degrees C or so on a regular basis. It will look bad after some time, no matter if it's made by nude virgins painted to blue and yellow at Hakko's manufacturing plant or in some shady basement in Shenzhen, China.