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Clean iron bit, dirty solder?? Fixed... sort of

Mr Random Guy

May 9, 2016
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My old soldering iron broke and I bought a new antex 25 watt iron. I wrapped solder round the tip and turned on the iron to tin it. A green liquid dripped off and the solder was all dirty even though the bit was new? When I wipe it on a damp sponge I can see the tip is crystal clean but when I apply solder this brown 1462814267704-2045360504.jpg gunk forms on it?
I've ordered a new bit and attatched a picture because I am so confused.

I know the picture looks like there are parts where there is no solder on the tip, but there is and the gunk is on top of it
 
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Mr Random Guy

May 9, 2016
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Weird solution for a weird problem. I used my component leg snipper to cut all the gunk of the tip making sure to only be removing solder. I turned on the iron and added small amounts of solder, didn't go brown and horrible so I wiped the tip clean and re tinned and this time no gunk appeared on the solder.

Now I'm just contemplating whether to save the new tip as a spare or make this current one a spare and use the new one...
 

73's de Edd

Aug 21, 2015
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Sir Random Guy . . . . . . .

ANTEX . . . .ANTEX . . . . why I haven't used those little jewels since the late nineteen sixties, for soldering on fine work or in cramped places.
However . . .I know that I still have at least 3 stored away.

Methinks that your tip just got TOO HOT before receiving solder and the black oxidation that you now presently see, is isolating that new solder that you are attempting to use, from even adhering to that area.
You lucked out in initially getting that small tinned area on the tip.

Two suggested procedures now:

Considering that your iron is being this unit :

$(KGrHqJ,!q!FG+Fm)ouCBR0wF)(Fig~~60_57.JPG



Which is a stand alone unit, and not one of the controlled / adjustable heat soldering iron stations.

When the new tip arrives, slip it on the end of the heating element and THEN degrease it from your fingers oil . . .or any prior handling "touchors". . .having touched the tiplet.
Then you use a rosin cored solder and apply an end directly to the tip to accept solder and start tinning, move the solder around to cover even more area .(Applied liquid Rosin flux can assist matters.)
Your previous procedure could just have heated the internal flux and it popped out of an end(s), therewith, leaving no internal flux, so that surrounding . . .then . . . fluxless solder "coilet" wouldn't adhere with the tips original thin tinned coating.

On tinning the NEW tiplet, use this alternate procedure:

Plug in the iron and keep poking solder at the end of the tip, until its external temperature JUST reaches the point where solder will melt and adhere to the tiplet.
Reach over and unplug the iron and keep moving the solder around to cover and tin as much tip area as you can. The stored "thermal flywheel" effect of the irons mass should get your area mostly tinned.
If needing more tinned area. just plug in the iron again to initiate heating to the same degree as experienced before. Repeat.
My procedure for tinning the whole end of an iron is to have it tinned back as far as I was successfull and then take a knife blade and pull back solder from the edge of the tinned area onto an adjoining untinned area BEHIND it.
That is done in fast "touches" so as to not have the knife blade sinking / stealing away all of the tips heat.
Those incremental side by side moves pulls some solder with the blade, such that the slight scraping of the untinned area with the blade, then has that solder flowing into that newly cleaned area. Eventually you will have the whole tip tinned .

ANTEX sez:
The soldering bits are plated with iron and chrome for extra long life.

Soooooooo . . . you can see the chrome plating being used up to the point where the iron tapers, and then the tapered end is iron plated.
On my irons when I had used them up to the point of their depletion of the iron plating, I just treated their tinning as if I now had a copper tiplet and tinned them in a normal manner.
Then I wasn't worried about wire brushing or filing or grinding them down a minute amount, to be able to retin.

Back to that problem tiplet, pull the unit out cold and see if judicious use of either plain steel wool or stainless wool will remove that tip blackening and get the end shiny enough to use the described procedure on it.


Thasssit . . . .


73's de Edd
 
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Mr Random Guy

May 9, 2016
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Should I just do the second option then? Also is there any point tinning the WHOLE tip or just the bit at the end which is all I'll ever use anyway.
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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Weird solution for a weird problem. I used my component leg snipper to cut all the gunk of the tip making sure to only be removing solder. I turned on the iron and added small amounts of solder, didn't go brown and horrible so I wiped the tip clean and re tinned and this time no gunk appeared on the solder.

Now I'm just contemplating whether to save the new tip as a spare or make this current one a spare and use the new one...


really sounds like you are using crappy solder

what is the make/type of solder you are using .... show a foto of the reel so the label can be read
or a link to it online


Dave
 

73's de Edd

Aug 21, 2015
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.


.


Sir Sir Random Guy . . . . . . .


MINIMALLY . . . I like to have a tiplet end tinned all around, at the least, to the amount of a B-B . . .OPTIMALLY I usually keep my tip tinned back about 1/4 in (7mm).
In the latter utilization, I can slant a tip and move in to a small transistors CBE and immediately add wire solder to flow the three into one melded blob and a pull from the
other side of the board will have the transistor flying out before the transistor junction even detects any detrimental heat conduction.

73's de Edd



ASIDE:

Everything seems fine except within the quotes

100g 3.5OZ 1mm Rosin Core . . . . . . . "Weldring Line" . . . . . . .6337 Tin/Lead Soldering Solder Wire

Possibly that banggood . . . . . . . did Bang you good .

I know that I have had some trying times when I found some of my 65 year old solder lengths and tried using them . . . . only added liquid rosin flux saved the day.


.




.
 
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Mr Random Guy

May 9, 2016
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OK so have you tried some different solder ?
I suspect you are not going to cure your problem till you buy some decent solder :)
Yeah but I can't really justify spending any more money at the moment. Do you think I can get away with this solder? its done okay with normal soldering before and I'm reluctant to buy more when there is still so much left.
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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Yeah but I can't really justify spending any more money at the moment. Do you think I can get away with this solder? its done okay with normal soldering before and I'm reluctant to buy more when there is still so much left.

personally I wouldn't use it

if it does that to your iron ... what sort of bad solder joints is it going to produce
consider that spending a few more bucks on decent solder now may save you lots of wasted time etc hassles later on
fault finding and redoing solder joints ... do it right ... do it once ;)


Dave
 

davenn

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never heard of either brand here in Australia

no idea if they are good or bad
 

Mr Random Guy

May 9, 2016
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OK so new solder put on and same problem. If I keep it quite cold then no nasty gunk forms on the tinned tip. But once I leave the iron plugged in for a while it us completely unusable again. Really frustrated and annoyed
 
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