Soldering Iron Maintenance - Cleaning Guide
Ed HughesDescription
Cleanliness is key when soldering. It’s good practice to clean the iron. Simply heat the iron and wipe it on a damp piece of tissue paper and you should see the tip of the iron become shiny again with a good coat of solder on it. If this doesn’t work, try letting it cool down and clean it with a piece of wet and dry paper. Once you’ve cleaned the tip, try using some flux to chemically clean the tip, then melt a little solder on to the iron and spread the solder around on a damp piece of tissue, then you should have a clean soldering iron tip.
For more Skill Shack with Practical Classics tips, check out our Classic Car Electrics course.
Now, there are a few difficulties with soldering which can be rather exasperating but they nearly all boil down to cleanliness of what you're trying to solder and what you're trying to solder with. It's good practice to occasionally clean the iron. Now, even a bit of dump tissue paper will do for this. And if you just heat the iron and wipe it on the damp tissue paper, you should see the tip of the iron become shiny again with a nice coat of solder on it, which you're now distributing around the tip. If it doesn't, you'll have to clean it with a bit of wet and dry paper. Let it cool down first, obviously, and then try again. And once you've cleaned it, then I've got a little bit of flux here. Flux is not something you need to use very often, but it is useful, it sort of chemically cleans everything as well. Having chemically cleaned it, you can then melt a little bit of solder onto the iron, and again just spread that solder around on the tissue and you should have a nice clean soldering iron tip.
Share tips, start a discussion or ask other students a question. If you have a question for the instructor, please click here.
Already a member? Sign in
No Responses to “Soldering Iron Maintenance - Cleaning Guide”