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Soldering iron tip oxidization confusion

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Shock:
Just adding this about cleaning:

The IPC training from when lead free solder was introduced says it's preferable to use brass wool (the type made for soldering). It works well on lead free and leaded solder. If you use a sponge, the heavy metals/minerals in tap water makes it unsuitable. It will lead to oxidization/corrosion, so instead use a small amount of distilled or deionized water.

To prevent tip oxidization, load the tinned portion of the tip with solder when you return the iron to the stand. It helps if your station supports a low power mode, this prevents the tip from "cooking" while you are not using it, otherwise you can just switch the station off. When you resume soldering and have melt clean that solder off the tip. If it's been maintained well it should have a nice fresh shiny surface over entire tinned area.

Don't be afraid at any time to load the tinned part of your tip with solder and then clean it, the flux in the solder will help dislodge oxides and freshen the surface. A clean tip helps with performance, makes soldering easier and prevents the need for more aggressive cleaning later.

tooki:

--- Quote from: nickajeglin on June 04, 2019, 04:09:27 am ---Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I just had a breakthrough.

My circuit specialists iron died, so I bought a weller WLC100, and associated tips. With these brand new (and higher quality) tips, I noticed that my Mudder brand solder didn't oxidize the tip, but the cheapo radio shack stuff I've had for years (part number 6400217) oxidized it pretty much instantly. I've thrown away the radio shack junk, and for now I'm only using the mudder stuff. It's thin gage, so I'll probably buy some heavy gage kester solder for through hole components in the near future.

So for anyone else who is having a similar problem, try switching solder compositions, or throwing away the roll of radio shack that's been in a drawer for 10 years.

--- End quote ---
1. We established it’s burnt flux, not oxidation.

2. Radio Shack solder was actually quite good quality, so what you probably saw happening “instantly” is the flux burning on an iron set too hot. Leaded solder melts at a lower temperature and so the flux didn’t need to handle the higher temperatures of lead free, so it will burn if you use it that hot.

3. You can just twist together a few strands of thin solder to make a thick one, if you don’t use thick solder that often. I don’t own anything larger than 0.8mm/.032” any more.

mikerj:

--- Quote from: nickajeglin on June 04, 2019, 04:09:27 am ---Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I just had a breakthrough.

My circuit specialists iron died, so I bought a weller WLC100, and associated tips. With these brand new (and higher quality) tips, I noticed that my Mudder brand solder didn't oxidize the tip, but the cheapo radio shack stuff I've had for years (part number 6400217) oxidized it pretty much instantly. I've thrown away the radio shack junk, and for now I'm only using the mudder stuff. It's thin gage, so I'll probably buy some heavy gage kester solder for through hole components in the near future.

So for anyone else who is having a similar problem, try switching solder compositions, or throwing away the roll of radio shack that's been in a drawer for 10 years.

--- End quote ---

Note that unlike your previous iron, the WLC100 is not temperature regulated. If it's left on without being used the tip temperature may get quite high which promotes oxidation.

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