[Elecraft] Soldering Iron Tip Contamination?

[Charles Greene]

At 12:56 PM 5/19/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>Chas,
>
>After a good polishing with some 600 emery cloth, I was able to tin the tip.
>The trick was to tin the tip just as it was warm enough to melt solder. I
>will, however, get down to RS and pick up some of that tip tinner/cleaner.
>Thanks for the help
>
>73
>
>Rick,


Glad it worked out for you.  I have a couple of ordinary soldering irons 
with copper tips as well as the temp controlled one.  The temp controlled 
uses a composition material for the tip, and once tinned it doesn't stay 
that way like the copper tips.  So the cleaning compound is very useful for 
the composition tip.  I just use a piece of copper wool, similar to steel 
wool but coarser but still a little finer than Tom's copper scrubber, for 
cleaning the copper tips.  It is used in marine applications where steel 
wool would rust right away,   It doesn't do much for the compensation tip, 
however.

73, Chas, W1CG