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I’ll show you how to make your own tip cleaner using parts from the hardware store and grocery store. The simplest thing to use is to use an old (or New) sponge. I used one for years and years. Recently I graduated to a “new & improved” tip cleaner.
I made my “new & improved” version last year. What you need is a copper or brass pot scrubber. You can find these at the hardware store, grocery store, Wal-mart, Target or possibly even a drug store. I think you get the idea. Buy here online. As you can see below the brand I found was Quickie brand. Carefully reading the package shows that they are not pure copper. I imagine they’re some type of cheaper metal, perhaps iron that is coated with the copper. Here are the two metal based products that Quickie makes my guess is the copper one is simply the non-copper one that’s been coated with copper. So what? The only thing it means is occasionally inspect it to make sure it isn’t rusting. This can happen even if you never put it in water if the copper is scraped off. Water in the air (humidity) will eventually cause it to rust. Not a big deal buy another one or just be sure to use a “clean” part of the scrubber that is still copper. Here’s the photos:
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Another brand of scrubbers is Scrubble Products. Notice that they offer a pure copper and a brass version. Either one would be fine. I don’t believe they sell into retail markets, but they are a large supplier to both food-service industries and to janitorial companies. I’d look for a company that sells to those businesses.
Chore Boy claims that they are pure copper and won’t rust:
I have not tried them, but they look like they should work fine.
All you need after that is something to hold it in. For a while I used a ceramic dish that one of my kids made me for Father’s day or Christmas or something. I inadvertently bumped it and when it hit the concrete floor it was “done”. I replaced it with a an electrical outlet box. My total investment was under $5. The copper scrubbers were about $2.50 and electrical box was $0.79. All you do is “fluff” the scrubber out so it stays in the box. I went ahead and put both scrubbers in the box. If you want to get fancy I suppose you could put rubber non-skid feet on the bottom of the box. Similarly, if you’re worried about the scrubbers popping out, you could take a piece of copper wire and tie it across the box or even get so fancy as to thread the wire through the scrubbers. Just about anything should work as long as it won’t melt. You can use plastic as long as you’re careful to not touch the iron to the plastic. Certainly you don’t care very much about melting the plastic, the bigger concern is getting the plastic off of the iron. Until you do that you will get mediocre soldering at best.
Here’s a photo of mine:
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