How To Clean Your Soldering Iron Tip

Switch OFF the Soldering Station or the Iron.

How to clean your soldering iron tip. Take either a wet sponge or wire wool. After every cycle and before you start to solder always clean your tip. Repeat the previous steps a few times if necessary until your tip is fully coated.

This step will coat the iron in a mixture of flux and solder. New tips require an initial seasoning which is simply. To apply the tip cleaner first heat the soldering iron.

Then dip the tip of the soldering iron inside the gel. A solder pot may also be used to tin or re-tin your soldering iron tip. Wire wool has the advantage of not cooling down the soldering iron too much and you dont have to wait for the iron.

You should not have to do more than periodically wipe the tip clean with a damp sponge then re-tin with fresh solder. The best tip tinner is your solder--tips should always be coated with a small amount of solder. A polyurethane foam bar with embedded abrasives which is used to polish the working end of the tip to remove surface oxides.

With the iron tip cold use a polishing bar. Maintaining the habit of keeping your soldering iron tip clean before during and after use will extend the life of the soldering tip. Tip Tinner copper is used to deoxidize and clean your soldering iron tip so that the solder can stick to the iron again.

If some of the oxides are just sticking really well you could try to mildly abrade them on a brass sponge copper braid or similar but you cant be too hard or you will damage the iron plating good tips are typically copper core plated with iron then chromium everywhere but the working area. Soldering iron only works if there is a temperature difference. That way the solder on the surface oxidizes rather than the tip itself.