Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner/Tinner Tech Tip

[Rocketdog2112]

A little tech tip when it comes to proper care and maintenance of your soldering equipment... 

Anyone who is serious about the quality of their solder work usually takes the time to properly clean and tin their solder tips. 

 

The usual product available for doing so is know as Plato Tip Tinner and Cleaner. A 20 gram (0.7oz) container cost anywhere between $12-15 dollars! 

 

The other day at the hardware store, I ran across the same product in the plumbing section made by Oatey. It comes in a 48 gram (1.7oz) for under $5.

 

I figured anyone on the Forum who likes to solder would appreciate this cost saving tip. 

[Levent]

I was not aware these existed.

[Timmyfox]

These are very useful indeed, but absolutely no replacement for proper tip care and maintenance.

 

As a word of warning, these are intended as a last resort for heavily damaged/oxidized tips and should NOT be used regularly to clean your tips as this can harm the existing factory tipping due to how these products quite invasively try to break down the outer layers to reapply new tipping material. If used too often, tip tinners can actually reduce the longevity of your tips rather than prolonging it. I'd use it only to “revive” a worn out tip, never to clean a healthy one.

 

The best way to care for your soldering tips and maximize their longevity is to use brass wool as your primary in-use cleaner and the occasional sponge when you need a little heavier cleaning. Always apply a fresh bit of solder to the tip after cleaning so that it never stays “dry” for too long and be to clean and add a layer of solder at the end of each session as well before turning the iron off.

 

Also, never forget: a bit of good flux goes a LONG way when soldering, you want quality solder wire with at least decent flux in it and you don't want to turn up the heat more than is needed. 250–300°C is typically plenty enough for leaded and 300–350°C for lead free, you really shouldn't need to go much higher than that under most circumstances. As an electrical engineering major, I've never once needed to go to 400°C, or even close to it, even with lead-free solder. Tougher joints with a lot of surface area (like ground planes) and lower-power irons might of course need a little more heat than your typical one to compensate for the added thermal mass/lack of thermal energy, but generally the lower the temp you can get away with still achieving a good joint, the happier your tips will be.

 

Also another cleaning tip to consider if your tips are starting to get a bit oxidized: grab some solder with good flux in it and melt enough onto your tip to create a blob. Then rotate the iron around a bit and let gravity do its thing so that the blob moves around the whole tip and when you're done just flick the excess solder away into an appropriate waste container and clean the tip as per normal with brass wool (preferred) or a sponge. Then just apply a fresh layer of solder as always to the tip and you're ready to keep working.

 

EDIT: Also one last note: be very cautious with products made for plumbing! Electronics soldering and plumbing soldering are two very different things and so are the chemicals used. Products made for plumbers are often a lot more aggressive and can severely harm your soldering iron! The Oatey in the image there is a petrolatum-based such meant for plumbing use and is a lot more corrosive than products like that Plato tinner (also evidenced by it being the only one of the two with the “corrosive” warning label). This will almost certainly damage your tip quite severely if used with any regularity.

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

On 7/14/2023 at 4:36 PM, Timmyfox said:

I'd use it only to “revive” a worn out tip, never to clean a healthy one

Does it works for you?

Once the tip is done those refresher provide like an hour of extra life. At least with my tips.

[ImorallySourcedElectrons]

12 hours ago, FlyingPotato_is_taken said:

Does it works for you?

Once the tip is done those refresher provide like an hour of extra life. At least with my tips.

Depends on the plating thickness on the tips and which materials were used, and not all these products work in the same way, and I strongly suggest avoiding the plumbing reactivators for electronics work. Heck, just compare weller and ersa reactivators when using them on the same tips, they behave quite differently.

[DoctorNick]

23 hours ago, ImorallySourcedElectrons said:

Depends on the plating thickness on the tips and which materials were used, and not all these products work in the same way, and I strongly suggest avoiding the plumbing reactivators for electronics work. Heck, just compare weller and ersa reactivators when using them on the same tips, they behave quite differently.

I use Weller activator and it works very well. Haven't tried anything else though

[ImorallySourcedElectrons]

On 7/18/2023 at 12:05 PM, offweek said:

What's wrong with the hot iron + wet sponge method?

If the corrosion gets bad enough that won't fix it, the brass sponges might have better results, but they also have their limits. The old method was to clean up the tip with a bit of sand paper or emery cloth, but modern tips have multiple plated layers on them which makes this method very dangerous, since you'll usually end up destroying the tip.