Soldering iron tip replating question...

[assimilat]

Hello,
I have been a big fan of the EEV blog vids for a while now and just thought i'd hop on to the forum to ask if anyone has heard of anyone replating soldering iron tips? I know with good soldering practice a tip should last for a fairly long time but there is a point where they need to be changed or there might be some custom shape tip you want and that is the main reason for me asking(aside from that its just fun). I have been playing with electroplating, machining and forging for a while now and I know that I could forge and machine a copper billet precisely enough to be the proper size of a iron tip. What im wondering about is if there is any reason a copper tip that I have machined and then iron plated would be noticeably different than a tip that comes from hakko? The only place ive seen anyone mention anything about doing it is in this article Popular Mechanics: June 1955 New Life for Soldering Iron Tips which I understand is quite old but there I have found there is MUCH to be learned from google books in that way. So...good idea? bad idea?
Thanks!!!

[kaptain_zero]

If I recall correctly, Hakko tips have an internal sleeve where the ceramic heater goes. What it is made from I do not know, but it needs to be there to prevent all the scaling that would happen if it were just copper.  Besides the iron plated tip, there is also the nickel/chrome plating on the rest of the exterior of a Hakko tip.

In other words, if you have a very very specific job that cannot be handled by one of the stock Hakko tips.... then perhaps it's worth your while to make one, but I'd suggest using a different soldering iron, one that just uses a copper rod that is held in place with a screw and the element surrounds the tip.  For the measly $4 to $6 per tip that I've paid on ebay for genuine Hakko tips, it hardly seems worth the effort to make lower quality tips.

I still remember my first soldering iron, it had a copper screwdriver shaped tip and I simply filed it back to shape every so often, until I ran out of tip.... I'd then buy a new tip for it and start over again.

Regards

Christian 

Ooops... I seem to have trailed off on the idea of making tips from scratch....  Frankly, even just re-plating Hakko tips would not be worth it... those tips are known to loose their sleeves when they get old and many times the sleeve remains stuck on the ceramic heater which causes more work and possible parts replacement.

[assimilat]

Right on! Thats all I needed to know...It being possible isnt anything that would make my life much easier...I just wondered if it were possible/worth it at all since I already have the equipment to do it and it seemed like an interesting project.

Thanks for your reply!