General > General Technical Chat
Unwettable soldering iron tip - Metcal
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thm_w:

--- Quote from: jonpaul on March 05, 2024, 03:21:11 pm ---As desinger of Metcal SP-200 in 1990s, I can say I have NEVER had any issues with GENUINE Metcal tips or irons, all tips tin immediately and last forever.

possible:

1/ Fake chinese cloe of Metcal? Check sites you bought from (dierct Metcal? Disty? Ebay? China?) vs Metcal for appearance and packaging.
--- End quote ---

Its digikey, as explained in the OP, it will be a genuine tip.


--- Quote from: Halcyon on March 05, 2024, 06:49:41 am ---Can you just get a replacement? If it doesn't do what it's supposed to, sounds like a warranty job to me.

--- End quote ---

Exactly, return it to digikey or metcal and move on.
Its a $12 tip, not worth this much time screwing around with.
twospoons:
Well, I fixed it.  Vigorous scrubbing with steel wool then a very light copper electroplate seems to have done the trick. Plating bath was one designed for brush plating - a mix of ammonium sulfate, tri-sodium phosphate and oxalic acid IIRC.


--- Quote from: EPAIII on March 05, 2024, 01:33:46 pm ---Well, that sure puts Metcal on my don't buy list. Thanks for the heads up.


--- End quote ---

Don't be silly. This is the first Metcal tip I've ever had an issue with, and I've been using them for decades for good reason. Of all the irons I've tried over the years Metcal has definitely come out on top.
thm_w:
The copper will dissolve and it might stop working again, assuming whatever material underneath is non-wetting.
Still without photo, don't know what the surface was under. Or if it was just some kind of corrosion on the iron plate. In that case 1000 grit sandpaper would have fixed it.

If its bare copper, nickel plating works quite well on its own.
SiliconWizard:
If the tip is certifiably genuine, then that's very odd. Could it have come with some protective coating rather than excess oxidation? Although i've never seen that with Metcal.

That said, I've personally never been a huge fan of Metcal. The stations are expensive, the tips are expensive, they do work quite well arguably, but I tend to prefer being able to adjust (and monitor) the temperature.
One area where these shine is production, where always using exactly the same temperature is just a matter of providing the right tips to operators and doesn't rely on them setting temps correctly (and I've seen many cases, over years, of operators setting temperatures consistently way over the ones specified in procedures, usually with the rationale, when you asked them, that they believed it made soldering easier.) Just my 2 cents.
twospoons:
I think I was just unlucky, and got the one tip that fell off the production line and got put back at the wrong place, missing a production step.
I fully expect the copper plating to dissolve, I only put on a flash, just hoping that once wetted it will stay wetted.

And yes, I could have just tossed it and bought another - but this is much more fun.
I tried contacting Metcal and got nothing but silence.
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