I have one of these soldering stations: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MVPOWER-So...ocphy=9046080&hvtargid=pla-696111227753&psc=1 that I got fairly recently.
I bought this for a few reasons, one being that all my other soldering iron tips were pretty ruined just from bad use.
Since this was a more expensive iron (it's a full-on station) I thought that the tip would last a bit longer. It hasn't. This had led me to believe I am doing something incorrectly.
The tip melts solder in one specific spot away from the very tip of the iron.
That blob of leftover solder is the only spot where it melts. As you can see, the very tip of the iron is black and it does not melt solder.
This is the back side of the iron:
As you can see, there is no solder here, and it also does not melt solder when hot.
I did a little bit of research into it and I got some mixed reactions. I heard using the sponges provided is good because it clears the flux and oxidized solder. However, for me, the sponges just smeared the solder over the tip of the iron which I thought was bad. Reading up on this article (https://electronics.stackexchange.c...ns-black-after-first-use-and-wont-melt-solder) it says it is good to keep your tip tinned. Of course, I didn't know about this previously, so I replaced the sponges with a brass wool scrubber like this:
People think these are good, and others think they are bad. These wipe all the solder off the iron and so it is not tinned when I put it away. Is this causing problems? Even when I was using the sponges I seemed to get the problem of it only melting the solder on only some parts of the iron.
I intend to buy some more tips for this iron. Before I go ahead I want to know how best to store them. Even though they are inexpensive, if I am having to buy them every few months, it will soon become expensive.
What am I doing wrong when storing my iron? When I am soldering should I clean it with the sponge? Should I tin the tip before I turn it off?
Thanks in advance,
Bod
I bought this for a few reasons, one being that all my other soldering iron tips were pretty ruined just from bad use.
Since this was a more expensive iron (it's a full-on station) I thought that the tip would last a bit longer. It hasn't. This had led me to believe I am doing something incorrectly.
The tip melts solder in one specific spot away from the very tip of the iron.
That blob of leftover solder is the only spot where it melts. As you can see, the very tip of the iron is black and it does not melt solder.
This is the back side of the iron:
As you can see, there is no solder here, and it also does not melt solder when hot.
I did a little bit of research into it and I got some mixed reactions. I heard using the sponges provided is good because it clears the flux and oxidized solder. However, for me, the sponges just smeared the solder over the tip of the iron which I thought was bad. Reading up on this article (https://electronics.stackexchange.c...ns-black-after-first-use-and-wont-melt-solder) it says it is good to keep your tip tinned. Of course, I didn't know about this previously, so I replaced the sponges with a brass wool scrubber like this:
People think these are good, and others think they are bad. These wipe all the solder off the iron and so it is not tinned when I put it away. Is this causing problems? Even when I was using the sponges I seemed to get the problem of it only melting the solder on only some parts of the iron.
I intend to buy some more tips for this iron. Before I go ahead I want to know how best to store them. Even though they are inexpensive, if I am having to buy them every few months, it will soon become expensive.
What am I doing wrong when storing my iron? When I am soldering should I clean it with the sponge? Should I tin the tip before I turn it off?
Thanks in advance,
Bod