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| Unwettable soldering iron tip - Metcal |
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| twospoons:
I have a brand new, fresh out of the box, Metcal soldering iron tip that refuses to wet at all, no matter what I try. Fine lead solder : nope Thick lead solder : nope rework flux : nope tip tinner/cleaner : nope Acid flux (ZnCl) : nope All of the above with repeated cleaning in the brass scrubber that comes with the iron : nope |O My workmate got the same tip type in the same order (from Digikey) and his one works just fine. This is the first time I've ever had a soldering iron tip behave like this. Any ideas? |
| soldar:
Whenever a tip gets dirty or won't wet for any reason it seems to take a while. I just see if by using flux and fine solder I can get a tiny spot to wet and then from there it gets bigger with use until the entire tip is wetted. It's annoying but it works and I have learned to live with it. |
| SiliconWizard:
Maybe you should take it to dinner first. |
| TopQuark:
What is the exact part number of the tip? The Metcal tip temperature is fixed, and the tip part number denotes the temperature it operates at. Could it be you got a tip that does not operate at the correct temperature? Maybe take a couple of pictures of the tip to let us see what's going on. |
| twospoons:
Its a SFV-CNL04. It melts solder quite happily, it just wont wet. Solder simply balls up without sticking to the tip. I'm thinking this tip somehow missed a process during manufacture - as I said previously, a workmate got the exact same tip and it works just fine - we ordered a bunch of tips for the company. Mine is the only one that fails to wet. Might try acid etch or electroplating a bit of copper on to it. Nothing to lose at this stage - a non-wetting tip is completely useless. |
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