How To Clean A Soldering Iron Bit

This should lead to a clean shiny tip ready for use.

How to clean a soldering iron bit. Practice good tip care. Do not wet the sponge in the bathroom or the water fountain. If all else fails Soldering Iron tips do not last forever.

Therefore you will experience ash and wood material gathering on the tip very frequently. First you will want to heat the iron up to operating temperature and wipe the tip on a damp soldering sponge to gently clean it. Wiping the iron on an edge of a hole cut into a sponge can help to remove oxides easier and also allows waste to fall away.

Your next steps should be cleaning the soldering iron using a wet sponge. Rubbing a hot soldering iron tip on a wet sponge causes the solder to contract at a different rate than the soldering iron helping to knock off any globs of solder that may be clinging to the tip. It consists of soft metal shavings that are coated with flux.

Like other posters have said to make the tip last longer leave a blob of solder on the tip when you are done. Wet the soldering station sponge with the water provided in the lab. Just heat it up with a propane torch and place the heated end against the solder you want to remove.

This step will coat the iron in a mixture of flux and solder. Plus its quite inevitable that the soldering iron will give you less control of your lines compared to a wood burning pen. Make the end red hot and use an old screwdriver.

Then dip into the tin of tinner cleaner with a slight twisting action. Never use abrasives on the soldering iron tip. Just before turning it off wipe the tip and add a bit of solder to it.