[Elecraft] Desoldering

[Matt Osborn]

On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 16:46:53 -0500, Tom Hammond <n0ss at earthlink.net>
wrote:

>Hi Matt:
>
>You should NOT be experiencing much (if ANY) tip tinning problems with the 
>Hakko 808...
>
>What steps have you attempted to clean/re-tin the tip so far?
>
>I have a spiral-wrapped stainless steel ribbon kitchen scrubbie which I use 
>for cleaning my soldering iron (and Hakko 808) tips. It does a great job of 
>scraping off oxidation and leaves the tips ready to accept solder. See my 
>web  site at www.n0ss.net, just about to the bottom of the"Files Related To 
>Building" section (3rd line from bottom), you'll find a PDF related to the 
>Kitchen Scrubbie Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner.
>
>Some of the Hakko 808's came with their thermostats (little blue [if I 
>recall] pot inset into the handle of the 808, but NOT the CAL pot) set 
>pretty 'hot'. This tended to allow the tips to oxidize all too quickly. It 
>also contributed to a tendency to over-heat a joint being desoldered, 
>resulting in occasional lifting of a trace or pad. I backed the temp down a 
>bit and both the trace and oxidation problems all but disappeared.
>
>The Hakko 808 tips are IRON-plated, so they should clean up pretty easily, 
>even if you are a bit 'aggressive' with the cleaning... though NEVER file 
>or sandpaper the tips... that's the BEST WAY to remove all traces of the 
>iron plating... guaranteed... been there... did just that! But you should 
>be able to clean them up in order to get them to take solder.
>

Hi Tom,

I think I may have 'cooked' the tip the first time I used it.  I
couldn't decide which indicator on the pot was correct. I thought the
big indicator was an arrow head and the skinny one the arrow shaft.  I
was, of course, wrong.

Letting it heat up for 5 minutes before trying to use it at a high
setting probably oxidized the tip.  I'll get some of those scrubbies
and see if I can't clean it up.

Thanks for the tips!