I am working on building "Build Your Own Clone" guitar effects pedals, and am having some difficulties soldering. Everything seems to work fine for about a half hour. I try to keep the soldering tip tinned and turn off the iron if I won't use it for more than 5 minutes. After soldering 5 or 10 components over a half hour or so, my soldering iron tip becomes unusable. It has clumps of solder on it. I cannot remove the old solder with a sponge, and new solder will not melt on the tip. Attached is a picture. What is going on here? My iron is a ZD-99, and it is temperature adjustable. I am using 60/40 leaded solder with flux.

 

Welcome to AAC!

Sounds like the tip isn't hot enough. What temperature do you have it set for?

Do you have a damp sponge or wire mesh pad to wipe off excess solder?

 

I've worked in a workshop environment and the first person in would turn the irons at the start of the day and 10 hours later they'd been turned off, even at home I've always kept the iron on until I've finished and never had problems.

 

Welcome to AAC!

Sounds like the tip isn't hot enough. What temperature do you have it set for?

Do you have a damp sponge or wire mesh pad to wipe off excess solder?

I set the tip for about 350 deg C. I have a damp sponge for cleaning.

 

Is this a recent thing ?

It hasn't started happening after changing a tip ?

 

Is this a recent thing ?

It hasn't started happening after changing a tip ?

Got my own iron (haven't soldered in years) recently and it started happening right away.

 

I should mention that I also got a new iron and tip thinking that it was a defective iron. The same thing started happening with the new iron.

 

How well is the collar tightening the tip, seems to be some reports that this is an issue.

Also the plating on the tip has been reported as sub par, to reports that the plating comes off after a while.

 

I set the tip for about 350 deg C.

Could have a bad heating element.

I use a 700F (370C) tip for most of my soldering.

 

I cannot remove the old solder with a sponge, and new solder will not melt on the tip.

Your heating element is bad and is not holding temperature.