Maintenance and Cleaning
Maintenance.
Like I said earlier, I took an electronics shop class in 7th & 8th grades of middle school.
There I learned the importance of proper maintenance. Our instructor made us apply anti-sieze compound every time we used the irons. When I first started with my own soldering Iron, I did the same thing but when I ran out of the anti-sieze I decided to go without. What I did, and do to this day, is religiously take the tip off of the iron every single time I’m done using it. I smack the tip on a hard surface and see if anything falls out of the threaded cavity that is at the element end of the tip. In nearly 40 years, I’ve never had the tip freeze to the element. A couple of times when I’ve gotten lazy and not removed the tip it has been difficult to get the tip off, but I’ve managed to prevail without breaking the heater element. I take the element out of the grip every once in a while. Ususally I leave the 33w element in unless I’m going to be doing lots of board work. Then I’ll switch to the 27w element or even go to the Temperature Controlled Station.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
While not found in the Bible, it better be found on your soldering iron tip. Cleanliness is important for good, fast heat transfer. Every so often I test the laws of thermodynamics by trying to not use a clean tip. I’m here to tell you that they haven’t changed over the last 40 years or so that I’ve been soldering. Dirty tip means poor work. How do you clean the tip? Well the manufacturers often provide a sponge that sits in a tray. I just “borrowed” a sponge from the kitchen and was good to go. Another thing that works very well is a copper or steel pot scrubber. These offer the advantage of cleaning without cooling the tip as much as a wet sponge does. This is just one of many accessories you’ll want to have available when you start soldering.
