Solder Tip Tinner question.

[Kiriakos GR]

There is out there several Tip-Tinner product solutions, which promising to restore / rejuvenate the tip of your soldering iron.

The question is: What is the benefits if this item contains and a portion of silver?

Tin and copper looks to be the most common ingredients.

[mariushm]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

Silver helps when soldering a lot of surface mounted components.

A lot of ceramic resistors and capacitors and equally miniature stuff has a bit of silver at the end, having a bit of silver on the tip helps to keep the life of the tip for longer time in this case.

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

By my understanding the elements of tin + copper is about to fill up any grooves on the surface of the injured copper tip of the soldering iron.

From my times as computer overclock-er, one good lesson was the properties of the Arctic Silver (thermally conductive compound), that is capable to speed up the heat transfer.

Therefore the mix of tin+copper+ a bit of silver in those grooves over the surface of the tip, it could possibly improve the heat transfer by a 5-8% (by estimation).

The one thought brings the next and possibly the low in watt soldering stations of 40 - 60W they can possibly benefit just a bit by the silver.
The ones of 70-90W or more, they do have a huge amount of thermal energy which it does not need much of help to travel on this tiny tip.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

As far as I know, silver solder is used for high strength solders (with the problem of higher melting point) or used for the dreaded lead-free design. As liquid solder is always somewhat solvent of hot copper tips, nothing is going to "plate" solder back onto the tip. Sorry, that tip is a consumable.

The best solder for copper tip (not ironclad/nickelclad) is solder that already has a lot of copper in it already, so it's already saturated with copper - so no more will dissolve. The second longevity requirement is simply it melts at the lowest possible temperature - hot copper is more soluble than cooler copper.

I'd call silver tip tinning unnecessary unless you are planning to use silver solder anyway, just to make sure your tip is not contaminated with lead.

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

I have buy and use silver solder for low resistance soldering when I did my decade resistors box, and even use silver plated wire for point to point connections.

All the soldering tips they do have some sort of plating.
I can only speculate that the melting point of silver is much higher than the tin, and so it stays longer over the tip.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

The problem with silver is...well, it's expensive.
Yes, the resistance may be lower but because the percentage silver in a typical solder is low, it is not going to affect resistance much. The tin will tend to pass the most current, and if you're soldering correctly, the COPPER is passing most of the current (you don't want a big blob of solder around your joint, you want it to mostly provide mechanical strength - unravelling would be bad, and a bit of conductivity while it's there.)

Not all tips have plating. Most tips are made of copper of course (but there is the exception here and there) and may or may not be cladded. The ones that do have either iron or nickel (or an alloy of one of the two) as far as I know, but you can get uncladded tips as well. These tend to not last as long as ironclads but cheaper. Silver has a lower melting point than either iron or nickel, so it does not make sense to use them as protection, and it's expensive anyway.

[EdT]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

Just tin the tip with solder it is still the best, all those tip tinning products is basically a thicker version of solder paste. Most soldering tip these days are plated, the problem is that most users over heat their tips or remove the plating with Scotch Brite or other abrasive products and the tip starts to oxidize.

[momaka]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

Most soldering tip these days are plated, the problem is that most users over heat their tips or remove the plating with Scotch Brite or other abrasive products and the tip starts to oxidize.

+1
Keep the tip temperature low when the iron is not in use, and the tip will last a long time. Also make sure to clean the tip properly. So far, I've had the most success with damp paper towels. Sponges tend to wear down the tip somewhat quicker, and brass shavings just don't seem to get the tip clean enough.

As for copper tips - when the tip is too worn to hold solder and if the plating is gone, sandpaper/file is my cheapest solution .

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

This is the product which I got and tested it.

http://www.ittsb.eu/forum/index.php?topic=665.0

It does look that offer much more than just to tin the tip, it even removed burned solder paste and it looks as much friendlier solution for regular use for modern high power soldering stations.

[EdT]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

+1
Keep the tip temperature low when the iron is not in use, and the tip will last a long time. Also make sure to clean the tip properly. So far, I've had the most success with damp paper towels. Sponges tend to wear down the tip somewhat quicker, and brass shavings just don't seem to get the tip clean enough.

As for copper tips - when the tip is too worn to hold solder and if the plating is gone, sandpaper/file is my cheapest solution .

Close cellulose sponges are best, but the problem is that most people over saturate it with water and the moment the tip touches it the tip temperature goes down and then they turn up the temperature resulting in overheating the tip. The sponge should be only damp, not dripping with water, this is the first thing I check when I visit EMS plants to see if they know their stuff and practice good workmanship procedures !

[EdT]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

This is the product which I got and tested it.

http://www.ittsb.eu/forum/index.php?topic=665.0

It does look that offer much more than just to tin the tip, it even removed burned solder paste and it looks as much friendlier solution for regular use for modern high power soldering stations.

We used that product in our plants, my concern is that it emits toxic fumes which I think is worse than no-clean rosin flux !
In the end I just had them use expired solder paste we had lying around ready to go into the garbage !

[momaka]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

but the problem is that most people over saturate it with water and the moment the tip touches it the tip temperature goes down and then they turn up the temperature resulting in overheating the tip.

I have a digital soldering station that uses tips with built-in temperature probes, the station responds very quickly and the temperature of the tip doesn't really drop that much. So even if I did use a dripping wet paper towel, I still have no problems.

No was far as my "classic" 35W Radio Shack soldering iron - I never bother cleaning the tip on that thing. The plating wore out after maybe the 3rd or 4th time I used it. That was some 12 years ago. Since then, the tip started becoming concave - which is really nice actually. I just fill it with solder and never bother cleaning or tinning the tip.

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

We used that product in our plants, my concern is that it emits toxic fumes which I think is worse than no-clean rosin flux !

I tested that in a bright new tip of my AT90DH just to see what it does.
My observation is that the tip as new it was having only a very tiny area so to host (hold) a bit of solder on it.

By using this staff all the plated area now is active and much more solder stay on it.

Regarding fumes by using this stuff occasionally like once every two months I do not see any risk.

[EdT]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

I have a digital soldering station that uses tips with built-in temperature probes, the station responds very quickly and the temperature of the tip doesn't really drop that much. So even if I did use a dripping wet paper towel, I still have no problems.

No was far as my "classic" 35W Radio Shack soldering iron - I never bother cleaning the tip on that thing. The plating wore out after maybe the 3rd or 4th time I used it. That was some 12 years ago. Since then, the tip started becoming concave - which is really nice actually. I just fill it with solder and never bother cleaning or tinning the tip.

You have a Metcal ?

I tested that in a bright new tip of my AT90DH just to see what it does.
My observation is that the tip as new it was having only a very tiny area so to host (hold) a bit of solder on it.

By using this staff all the plated area now is active and much more solder stay on it.

Regarding fumes by using this stuff occasionally like once every two months I do not see any risk.

Perhaps with only one user, but imagine 2000+ people soldering in a huge plant ! I have seen just about every crazy thing the electronics industry has to offer, twice the flux in a batch of solder was bad if I recall was the Multicore brand which is now owned by Loctite, workers were nauseating and fainting, we had to evacuate the plant twice in 4 years. Loctite sent their people and never figured out what was wrong with their rolls of solder. Sometimes I wonder what crazy formulas of flux they are putting into their solders ? ...LoL

[momaka]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

You have a Metcal ?

Nah, just a crappy Aoyue 2900 digital station. But it uses those cartridge tips with the built-in temperature probe and not the standard crappy ones. Thus, the station responds much faster to when the tip touches something cold.

[Kiriakos GR]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

Perhaps with only one user, but imagine 2000+ people soldering in a huge plant !

And they add tin on their soldering irons like seeing the red army marching?

[Cscharff]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

I prefer a brass brush screwed to the solder station, doesn't lower the temp too much and gets the nasty off. Of course its getting hard to find a dense low height replacement.

[EdT]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

Nah, just a crappy Aoyue 2900 digital station. But it uses those cartridge tips with the built-in temperature probe and not the standard crappy ones. Thus, the station responds much faster to when the tip touches something cold.

Smart buy, the Hakko clones from Aoyue are awesome ! ...hehe
The Hakko 936 is still the best home soldering station for the money !

[EdT]

Re: Solder Tip Tinner question.

And they add tin on their soldering irons like seeing the red army marching?

Actually those plants were in North America, but I can say the EMS plants in China are more advance and the workers have better workmanship practices than in Mexico, US and Canada !

These are just one of 100s and 1000s of typical small EMS companies in China today, I am impressed with their workmanship practices, it puts the largest multinational North-American EMSes like Flextronic, Sanmina-SCI and Celestica to shame on what you can do with a small budget !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSxl4dQzYYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7hxVFJ3Ec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T41O5uuZZDA