How do you know when it's time to replace your tip?

[chris.knudson]

Bob had a few too many prime rib sandwiches and had a widow maker heart attack and passed away in 2010

Sorry for your loss. My best friend died 4 years ago from the flu -- 30+ years of smoking and his body couldn't handle the flu.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Sorry fo your loss. My best friend died 4 years ago from the flu -- 30+ years of smoking and his body couldn't handle the flu.

Ditto to you Chris. It's hard when you find out. My wife and I couldn't believe it. And now I've lost her to Covid complications on 9/4/21. Her digestive system failed. I did not know people die from digestive system failure.... I'm literally as of 2 months ago, back to the FERAL MALE I was before I met her. Looking forward to each day to glean the most from it that I can. My sense of humor has returned, as has happiness and joy.

I've stopped singing 'Wish you were here' and replaced that with 'Running down a dream', 'Last dance with Mary Jane' and 'Free Fallin'


Don't be sad, Be Happy!!! How can they be happy in heaven when you're sad on earth. Is my mantra...

 

[bean]

I use a Hakko kit and a small pointy tip. When the tip bends out of shape, I replace it. Maybe once every year or two.

If you use a bulkier tip you may never have to replace it unless you start to lose surface area or get imperfections on the tip edge. As mentioned, a light sanding with 400-600 grit sandpaper followed by a cleaning should keep it going for a long time. You don't need to go super fine with the sanding - some very fine surface area scratches on the tip can help with solder adhesion.

 

[chris.knudson]

Ditto to you Chris. It's hard when you find out. My wife and I couldn't believe it. And now I've lost her to Covid complications on 9/4/21. Her digestive system failed. I did not know people die from digestive system failure.... I'm literally as of 2 months ago, back to the FERAL MALE I was before I met her. Looking forward to each day to glean the most from it that I can. My sense of humor has returned, as has happiness and joy.

I've stopped singing 'Wish you were here' and replaced that with 'Running down a dream', 'Last dance with Mary Jane' and 'Free Fallin'


Don't be sad, Be Happy!!! How can they be happy in heaven when you're sad on earth. Is my mantra...

I've learned that life is short, and it's made for the living. I think about my best friend every day, and I'm so sorry to hear about your wife, but I love your attitude. I'm glad to hear that your sense of humor, happiness and joy have returned to you life. I try to find something positive every day in my life -- it's not always easy, but I don't let myself go to bed with out being thankful for something that happened to me today. And certainly (while not appreciated by everyone), I have tried to keep my sense of humor - as twisted as it is sometimes. Keep running down the dream my friend -- your wife and Bob would have wanted it that way!

 

[Erik S]

So what temp do you all recommend?

750. Balls to the walls!

My soldering hot take is that everyone getting cold joints and no solder flowing through to the component side are probably running too cold. I also think heat damage to components probably comes from extended contact more than high temps. I bet too cold causes more pedal failures than too hot.

Hehe get it? Hot take?

I break a lot of the rules in that best practices list. High temp, tiny gauge solder, no wet sponge, I like solder wick.

I’m still on my first tip on the haako after about a year and 45 pedals and it looks fine.

I do avoid idle time pretty carefully. If I’m not actively soldering I switch it off. If I’m going to walk away from the bench, I add solder to the tip, then switch it off.

 

[KR Sound]

I keep waiting for the Michael Scott “That’s what she said” to show up somewhere ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Giorfida]

750. Balls to the walls!

My soldering hot take is that everyone getting cold joints and no solder flowing through to the component side are probably running too cold. I also think heat damage to components probably comes from extended contact more than high temps. I bet too cold causes more pedal failures than too hot.

Hehe get it? Hot take?

I break a lot of the rules in that best practices list. High temp, tiny gauge solder, no wet sponge, I like solder wick.

I’m still on my first tip on the haako after about a year and 45 pedals and it looks fine.

I do avoid idle time pretty carefully. If I’m not actively soldering I switch it off. If I’m going to walk away from the bench, I add solder to the tip, then switch it off.

That was one concept I learned in a previous life working on resistance brazing machines. High heat gets a very concentrated area for a joint hot fast, lower heat allows surrounding areas to get hot before the isolated area of the joint gets hot enough to flow out. You had to balance between being too hot that you damage the area you are trying to join and being too cold allowing areas you don’t want to become compromised.

 

[szukalski]

I went down to 320C from 327C on the same solder recently. I feel like it made a difference to how I work but meh, maybe it doesn’t do anything.

And since I’ve been waiting for someone to answer the original question..

You replace your tip when your wife says it smells funny.

 

[Cybercow]

Replacing a soldering iron tip is (for me anyway) obvious when I notice oxidation, pitting or poor performance of the tip.

Keeping the tip wet & clean is crucial for optimal performance. I never set my hot iron down for more than about 10 minutes without first re-wetting the tip after a quick dip in flux paste and cleaning/wiping.

In my experience and talking with other techs, everyone's experiences differ due their personal soldering techniques/habits. It's an art & science.

 

[Barry]

750. Balls to the walls!

My soldering hot take is that everyone getting cold joints and no solder flowing through to the component side are probably running too cold. I also think heat damage to components probably comes from extended contact more than high temps. I bet too cold causes more pedal failures than too hot.

Hehe get it? Hot take?

I break a lot of the rules in that best practices list. High temp, tiny gauge solder, no wet sponge, I like solder wick.

I’m still on my first tip on the haako after about a year and 45 pedals and it looks fine.

I do avoid idle time pretty carefully. If I’m not actively soldering I switch it off. If I’m going to walk away from the bench, I add solder to the tip, then switch it off.

I try to set my temp to the task, soldering a board I'll run at 700, desoldering I generally drop down to 600, SMD maybe even a tad less.

 

[Erik S]

I try to set my temp to the task, soldering a board I'll run at 700, desoldering I generally drop down to 600, SMD maybe even a tad less.

That’s cool.

I just:

 

[Dan]

Yes, I've done most of those as well, but this brings up another question - what temperature do you solder at? I've always soldered at 680°F (360°C), but this article says to keep you iron at 608°F (320°C), but I've seen a lot of posts on this forum where people are soldering at 700°F or higher. So what temp do you all recommend?

I just ran a temperature check using my multimeter and what the knob said and what the tip measured were 50 degrees different. I don’t have a digital read out of temp on my station. I have an old system with iron and tin sucker gun thingy. It started to go intermittent on me so I replaced the wand and the new wand got hot in a flash. We’ll see if the temp is more accurate. Nothing more helpful than your iron going intermittently cold while building…

The tip lasted 8 years?