soldering... this really doesn't belong on the forum anywhere...

[Korndogg]

i don't think... but still, i'd like a bit of help
why the hell does solder stick on my soldering iron? is it normal? because it pisses me off.. it just keeps building up and building up... i just polished the soldering iron with my dremel, but solder still sticks to it... it makes the soldering iron work like crap.
it's a 30watt soldering iron..

here's the specs on the solder i use, because it's all i can find around here:
60% tin, 40% lead

fine electrical rosin core solder

a low melting alloy with fast acting flux...



thanks for any help

[OS-Wiz]

Its suppose to! When I'm doing a lot of soldering I use a dampened sponge to wipe the excess solder off.

[Korndogg]

really...
lol
well it pisses me off



not to mention that i just made my soldering iron a little smaller with that dremel...
lol

[Korndogg]

by the way... two of my bits for my soldering iron are pretty similar... one is long and silver (color...), and one is short and brass... i use the brass one because i'm too impatient to wait for the long one to get hot
but does it make a real difference?
on the front they show someone useing the long one on a circuit board... i'm guessing because it doesn't get as hot?
i dunno...

thanks again

[Mrfreddio55]

Originally posted by Korndogg
by the way... two of my bits for my soldering iron are pretty similar... one is long and silver (color...), and one is short and brass... i use the brass one because i'm too impatient to wait for the long one to get hot
but does it make a real difference?
on the front they show someone useing the long one on a circuit board... i'm guessing because it doesn't get as hot?
i dunno...

thanks again

Not really sure on that, but yeah my soldiering iron does the same thing.. its kinda agrivating, but oh well.

[CrawlingEye]

You're supposed to put solder on the tip of your iron before soldering. It's called "tinning the iron"

You can do this to wires too, you pretty much just put a thin coat of solder on the wire, so it doesn't move much.

I'm pretty sure this is also to make sure that there's no oxidation on the two surfaces being soldered.

[Korndogg]

really... cool
thanks for the info.. i'll be trying that out tonight

[Isezumi]

haa damn your lucky Korn

My soldering Iron has a Shield or Solder Repelence +5. After about ten minutes of work I have to unplug it and grind the tip to get all the oxidated coating off.

[Big_Mac]

there's a compound called soldering flux, and it makes surfaces really nice and clean for solder purposes. Check your local rasio shack or hardware store.

[muisejt]

a couple reasons why the solder seems to be staying on the iron and not what you are soldering is that what you are soldering is not getting hot enough or it's too dirty. there is flux in the rosin core solder but it's not alway enough to clean it all contaminants. it's a good ideal to clean the parts with isopropol (rubbing) alcohol then solder. heat wise it could be that you are using a tip that is too small for the job at hand and it's taking too long to heat the parts up. when things are clean enough and hot enough the solder will flow, even uphill. with a little practice you'll get the hang of it

[oXyCoNTiN]

also, try applying the solder to the object more and to the tip of the iron less. works alot better!

[bluesfusion]

What oxycontin said.

Many people get huge gobs of solder on the tip cause they are too impatient to let the joint heat up and so end up touching the solder wire to the tip to get it to melt "faster". Well guess what.. solder flows towards heat so its going to want to move more towards the tip than to the joint and sooner or later you end up with gobs of solder on the tip.

The proper way to do it is to tin the tip so you have a little bit of solder on the tip... then you put the tip to the joint and touch the solder wire to the other side of the joint so that the solder has to flow over the joint to reach the tip. As soon as it flows over the joint, remove the tip.

You still get solder buildup on the tip after a while but if you wipe it off on a wet cloth that should be enough. And you dont really want to clean your tip completely with a dremel cause the next time you solder you will have to re-tin the tip anyway. Just remove the excess with a wet cloth but dont get it to show the base metal everytime or you'll wear the tip down to a stub.

[Korndogg]

heh.. yeah... i know the process of soldering pretty well.. i still get buildup on the tip though, and it really annoys me.. i was just wondering if it was me, or if it was normal.
thanks for all the replies

[talldude]

Yeah...I did a lot of soldering just now. Got the hang of it pretty much. Ya gotta heat up whatever you're soldering and touch the solder to the point you're trying to solder, not melt it all over the iron . That way you get nice even solder-jobs and no big globs.