How to Clean Weller Soldering Tips
Soldering tips have to be kept clean not just of old solder and flux build up, but of oxidization as well. The base metal of all soldering tips is copper, and copper exposed to air will oxidize. This is why re-tinning a tip is a necessary part of cleaning and caring for it. Re-tinning puts a protective coating on the copper that prevents oxidation. Weller tips are made in such a way that they need to be cleaned and tinned with Weller products only to keep them in good working order. The older technique of cleaning a soldering tip with a wet sponge will harm a Weller tip. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Hold the Weller polishing bar in one hand and the soldering iron with the Weller tip in the other. The soldering tip can be hot or cold but you should clean and re-tin your tip as soon as you are done using it to prevent oxidization.
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Scrub the polishing bar over the tip. Clean off any old solder or flux build up and any dark areas that indicate oxidization has begun. You want the tip to be the warm gold color of clean copper again.
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Unscrew the lid on your pot of Weller Tip Activator. This is the product that Weller has designed for re-tinning their tips.
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Dip the tip of your soldering iron into the pot of Weller Tip Activator. The activator is similar to a cream or gel and you want to lightly coat the entire tip with it. Use a rag to spread the activator over the tip if your tip is still hot.
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Tips & Warnings
Clean and dip your tip in the activator periodically while working. This will help you get clean and strong soldered joints. Another useful tip for soldering is to maintain a steady contact between the tip and the object being soldered; this will help prevent a build-up of solder and flux on the tip as it will not have a chance to cool.
Do not clean a Weller soldering tip with a damp sponge as is done with other brands of soldering irons. This will damage the Weller tip. Only use Weller cleaning systems to clean Weller tips.
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Comments
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what a load of rubbish - weller recommend using there own brand sponges - but saying you cant clean a weller iron with a damp sponge is plain rubbish - it says to do just that in the manual of my weller soldering iron.
