EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: ChrisLX200 on November 24, 2017, 11:58:00 pm
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So I fancied trying a bent/curved soldering tip, I could see some advantages in demo vids when working with multi-pin ICs (easier to get the tip to span several pins at once). Rather than buy one though I just shaped one taken from my stock of otherwise fairly useless Weller long/fine conical tips I seem to have collected. These tips are iron plated, but whether the iron is ductile I didn't know - so it was possible the plating would simply crack. I wetted the tip first then held it in a 3-jaw lathe chuck and gently tapped it with a copper mallet into something like a useful shape. Feels good in the hand and apparently works well. Can't see any evidence of the plating cracking but time will tell how long it lasts.
Rather than swapping tips I keep different tips on different irons, so the 60w Ersa has a stubby 3mm chisel-tip, the newer Weller 45w a finer 2mm chisel, and the old Weller (think it's also 45w) now holds the curved tip.
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It wont last as you can bet the plating is micro-cracked. If you want to bend another one without cracking the critical plating in the wetted area, I would recommend you take a threaded hollow brass spacer >1/2" long, and plug one end with a short machine screw, Flux and tin the inside, fill it with solder and plunge the tip into it till the edge of the wettable part is a few mm below the surface. Let cool. You can now bend it while keeping the wettable part straight and firmly supported.
You need to build up a carbon layer in any cracks to protect the core from oxidisation which would cause the plating to spall off, so wipe the sides, but not the shank with sugar water, let it dry, then put it in the iron and melt the tip free, and turn the iron up to max long enough to fully carbonise the sugar then wipe the sides with kitchen paper and a trace of vegetable oil as it cools, then finally clean and re-tin the tip. That should give you a firmly adhering carbon and metal oxides layer on the sides, similar to seasoning a cast iron saucepan.
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I have about a dozen to play with so I can always try again :) Thanks!