How To Clean Soldering Iron Without Flux

While it can be useful in certain situations it is not enough to remove oxidation from a soldering iron tip.

How to clean soldering iron without flux. Then dip into the tin of tinner cleaner with a slight twisting action. To prevent damage to the board you should re-solder your soldering iron now and then as the technique will remove solder from it. By heating up one flat head screwdriver to use as an alternative to a soldering iron and another cold screwdriver as a wick youll be able to effectively remove solder from any surface.

Flux isnt for cleaning the iron though. After securing and preheating the PCB and void in a vice or PCB holder you suck the solder off the board by squeezing and releasing the bulb from behind the hole. Cardboard works in a pinch.

In the first step organic solvents are used to remove flux residue. The best alternative to flux when soldering is petroleum jelly which is anti-corrosive and will not damage your material. I found that without solder it is very difficult to get the solder to suck into the wires.

Old soldering iron may have flux stick to it. Its something of a vi-vs-emacs war about which is better but whatever. This helps to prevent unnecessary accidents.

This makes a mild acid. No-clean flux is another alternative flux that is used for soldering parts that require little or no cleaning. The flux will be activated by the heat that will start a chemical reaction to eliminate the oxidation.

Attaching a heat sink. Apply to the oxidized tip a thin layer or flux-cored solder. Turn off the electricity source and leave the soldering iron for about 15 to 20 minutes.