Soldering Iron Maintenance Tips

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Jeff Naylor from Mtroniks is Mesa, Arizona for Expert Village. In this section, we're discussing soldering and cleaning and maintenance. Now soldering tip maintenance might seem insignificant, but if the top is contaminated, the joint you make with the top will be contaminated and will eventually fail, so it?s actually really important. To prevent oxidation of the soldering tip, it is necessary to always have a fine layer of solder on the iron tip. Most soldering stations come with a sponge with a hole in the center. The center portion is used for cleaning the debris off the tip. After cleaning off the tip, tap it on the wet sponge and reapply solder. After soldering, it?s important to clean off the tip of your iron. As my father always said, never put your tip away dirty. What I have here is a wire cleaner. You can use this to get excess solder and contaminants off the tip. We're going to use this by loading our tip up with solder and then actually stabbing the wire. This brush cleans off all the excess. Look how clean our tip looks now."