The process of properly tinning a soldering iron tip for quality work. How to tin a soldering iron: preparation and care of a soldering iron How best to tin a soldering iron

Almost everyone has the most common soldering iron with a copper tip. This one is simple and useful tool is necessary not only for specialists involved in radio electronics. It is also often needed on the farm, for example, to solder two wires or repair some simple problem. household appliance with your own hands.

However, not all novice users succeed in even the simplest operation - tinning a soldering iron.

Why tin the soldering iron?

Soldering iron tinning materials

• pine rosin;
• solder;
• sandpaper;
• sponge for washing dishes.

The process of tinning a soldering iron with a copper tip

During operation and storage, an oxide layer forms on the soldering iron tip. It interferes with high quality soldering. To remove this layer and prevent its re-formation, tinning is performed, or coating the copper surface with a protective layer of tin alloy. There are many in various ways tinning. Before surgery, the sting must be thoroughly cleaned.

Basic information about the tinning process

Tinning is divided into initial, carried out on a new or long-term soldering iron, and working, performed immediately before soldering.

How to tin a soldering iron tip? First, the tip is mechanically cleaned of scale, oxide film, slag and other contaminants, then a thin layer of molten solder, most often tin-based, is applied to the prepared surface.

For mechanical cleaning the following are used:

• abrasive stone;
• sandpaper;
• another soldering iron.

Preparation and Maintenance

The more intense the work, the sooner the soldering iron tip burns out and becomes overgrown with scale scales.

During prolonged heating to high temperatures, the copper from which the tip is made partially transforms into molten tin, and partially abrades on the soldered surfaces and contacts. Physical and chemical erosion of the substance occurs. In addition, under the influence of heat, an oxidative reaction of copper with atmospheric oxygen occurs. On models that allow you to regulate the temperature, it is recommended to reduce it when there are breaks in soldering, or simply turn off the soldering iron during this time.

Sequence of operations to remove scale:

• Carefully remove the sting.
• Clean off the scale layer with fine-grained abrasive paper.
• Apply a graphite protective layer to the tip by rubbing it with a pencil lead. This will slow down the reappearance of the scale layer.
• Lightly tap the body of the electric heater and turn it to remove scale from the recess for the copper rod.
• Insert the tip back into the mount.

To ensure electrical safety, each time before starting work, you should inspect the insulation of the network cable for the absence of mechanical damage and melting.

From time to time it is also useful to measure the insulation resistance value. The measurement is taken between the plug contacts and the tip. The value must be greater than 10 mOhm.

Features of the sting

The sting is the main (and only) working part of the device. It is heated by an electric heater and heats the solder, rosin (or other flux) and the parts to be soldered. During operation, an invisible oxide film forms on it, reducing the wettability of the material. Visually it looks like this: tin or rosin does not spread evenly over the entire area, but collects in a drop and flows down.

The size and geometry of the working body are chosen so that they correspond to the operations performed. So, when soldering parts of large sizes and thickness, choose a powerful soldering iron with a thick tip. To install microcircuit legs, on the contrary, a special device is required low power, with a thin tip and good grounding to prevent damage to sensitive components by static charge or overheating.

A universal soldering iron is sharpened with a spatula. Thin parts are soldered with the narrow side, and more massive ones with the plane of the blade.

Tin the soldering iron tip

Before each soldering, the soldering iron must be re-tinned. The device must be turned on and wait until it warms up completely. In this case, the copper of the working body will acquire a red-orange hue. There is no need to overheat either, to avoid burning. The heated soldering iron should be pressed against a piece of rosin. The rosin will begin to melt and give off strong-smelling smoke. The melt should be evenly coated on the tip. Then you need to melt a small piece of tin and let it spread over the surface in an even layer.

How to tin a soldering iron with a copper tip

Tinning a soldering iron is a simple job and usually does not cause any difficulties. If the surface of the rod is well prepared and cleaned, then both tin-lead and silver solders fit well on it.

It is necessary to clean the surface of the rod to the condition of a new part. First you need to work with coarse sandpaper, level the surface and give it the required shape. If it is technically possible, it is a good idea to polish the surface - this way it will oxidize more slowly.

There is another technique - binding. To do this, the tip should be pulled out of the heater and, like a blacksmith, forged with a hammer on an anvil (or a massive vice). A surface compacted in this way will also oxidize much more slowly.

After machining, it’s time to actually tin the tip. Experienced shareholders recommend various methods:

• Place a few pieces of solder in the rosin can. Heat the soldering iron and dip the stripped tip into it. Rosin melt will act as a flux additive and will prevent the metal from becoming coated with an oxide layer. Instead, it will be coated with a layer of tin. Next, you need to take a square of coarse natural cloth and wipe the freshly tinned tip. In this case, the tin will rub over the surface and stick to it perfectly. The disadvantage of this method is a lot of smoke and a strong smell.
• The next method of tinning the tip produces less smoke, but requires more labor. A piece of coarse natural cloth should be laid out on a smooth board, sprinkled with crushed rosin or a whole piece. Dip the stripped tip into rosin and rub the surface with a solder rod. This operation will have to be repeated several times, and then rub the working surface on rosin cloth.

A soldering iron with a copper tip must be tinned each time before soldering and always after storage without use.

How to tin a soldering iron tip while working

If you carefully clean and tin the tip, then after half an hour of work, or even earlier, tin will no longer accumulate on it. The copper slowly began to burn, and slag residues accumulated on it. There is no point in pressing the soldering iron harder, stop for tinning. There are a number of techniques for tinning the tip.

Using a wooden block

Rough wooden block(spruce or pine, they contain natural resin, similar in composition to rosin). Pour a small amount of flux composition onto the block and put a small piece of solder. If you notice dross, you can strip and tin the tip again with little interruption.

In a metal sponge

This quick tin tip method will require some preparation. Place a household wire dish sponge in a metal cup. The lower part of the sponge should be coated with a thick flux, such as soldering lard. By slightly immersing the tip in the sponge, it can be cleaned of slag and scale. And if you pick up a drop of tin and immerse it deeper into the sponge, it will turn out to be tinned.

This method can be used to clean and tin both a classic copper tip and modern ones made of nickel or ceramic.

In rosin

This traditional method of tinning requires a certain amount of dexterity and speed of movement. Copper oxidizes very quickly, and you may not have time to bring the tip from the point of mechanical cleaning to the container with flux. Therefore, they clean directly under flux, placing a file under the tip. You need to rub the tip over the file until the flux melts, after which you can tin it by holding a tin rod.

Tin the classic way

Another traditional method of tinning involves the use of refractory solder. The refractoriness of the solder allows it to evaporate more slowly from the surface of a tinned soldering iron and will remain on the copper longer. It will require:

• file with frequent notches;
• rough board made of coniferous wood;
• rosin;
• a piece of refractory solder.

The sequence of actions is as follows:

• put solder on the board;
• clean one side;
• dip deeply into rosin;
• quickly clean it on a board, running it over the solder;
• repeat for the second side.

How to tin a modern soldering iron tip

According to manufacturers' declarations, tips made of ceramic or nickel do not require tin-plating. IN real life they are also susceptible to the formation of soot and scale. It will not be possible to tin such a soldering iron in the usual way. You will need:

• cotton rags;
• jar of rosin;
• solder rod.

You should wipe the tip on a rag and immediately immerse it in rosin. Along the tip you need to immerse a solder rod in boiling rosin. It will melt and stick to work surfaces.

Tinning methods

There are several ways to clean work surfaces before tinning:

• Using abrasive materials. Needle file, file, whetstone, sandpaper.
• Using forging. It is recommended to remove the tip before processing it.
• Using another soldering iron. The tips rub against each other.

After stripping, you should immediately, without waiting for the oxide layer to recover, immerse the tip in a container with rosin. A rod of solder is also immersed there, melting it and allowing it to spread over the surface of the rod. This operation should be repeated several times to ensure that the working surfaces are completely covered with solder.

The tip must be carefully inspected. If there are areas not covered with solder, the operation should be repeated until a dewy continuous layer is obtained.

You won't be able to tin it once and for all. Tinning needs to be repeated periodically.

How to tin a fireproof tip

The traditional tip, made of red copper, has a tendency to constantly burn out and form scale. Quite often it needs to be cleaned and tinned. On the other hand, work on desoldering microcircuits and other electronic components that are highly sensitive to overheating requires minimal presence of solder on the working part. Even the minimal heat that is stored in a drop of solder may be enough to damage them.

For the installation of such heat-sensitive parts, non-burning tips with a thin nickel layer are used. This coating is easy to scratch, and traditional sanding with a file or sandpaper for copper tips will quickly damage it. You should also not remove excess solder by tapping it on the stand.

Such working bodies can be tinned in the following way:

• prepare a piece of cotton fabric, rosin and solder;
• wet it cold water, squeeze lightly;
• place a piece of solder in a jar of rosin;
• rub the heated soldering iron firmly on the fabric, erasing the oxide layer;
• quickly dip the tip into rosin and melt the tin in it, allowing it to spread evenly;
• rub on cotton cloth.

It is permissible to use a wire sponge made of copper alloys for this. Steel wire will not work - it will damage and tear off the nickel coating layer.

For non-burning soldering irons, it is especially important to comply with temperature regime- if it is exceeded, the tip may fail. You need to carefully monitor the temperature, and during breaks in soldering, reduce the power if the device is equipped with a regulator. If there is no regulator, the soldering iron should be turned off during breaks. Advanced models have an automatic power control function. It uses information from the temperature sensor and reduces power if the device is in danger of overheating. In addition to overheating, it is also harmful for non-burnt tips to be left without solder for a long time.

Fireproof tips have the added benefit of being easy to remove and replace. Whole sets of replaceable working tools are available, designed for different types rations.

The tip of a working soldering iron requires regular maintenance. Otherwise, the solder stops sticking to it, and soldering turns into a painful procedure.

The new electric soldering iron is equipped with a clean, untinned tip. For soldering irons with a nichrome heating element, it is a copper rod sharpened to a wedge.

This is convenient for connecting wires to each other and to the terminals of electrical devices. For soldering small parts It is popular to sharpen the tip with a cone, which allows it to avoid clinging to adjacent elements on the printed circuit board.

Caring for an electric soldering iron with a nichrome heater

Installation of a tip in a soldering iron depends on its design. In the first case, it is held in the body by a slightly flattened part, and is inserted and removed from it with little effort. In the second, it is attached with a screw to the body of the soldering iron. This method is preferable. Both fastening methods have features that affect the methods of caring for the soldering iron tip.

When using a soldering iron for a long time, scale forms between the walls of its inner part and the tip, which impairs heat transfer. If it is not removed correctly in time, then it will be impossible to disassemble this unit without breaking. The tip is periodically removed, the inner surface is cleaned with fine sandpaper and inserted back. When fastening with a screw, this is easier to do, only the screw sometimes needs to be completely unscrewed and screwed back in. Otherwise, it will not be possible to move it from its place without breaking it. When simply fixing the tip in the body, you have to forcefully pull it out. Sometimes nothing comes of this idea, and attempts to achieve your goal at any cost lead to the breakdown of the soldering iron. Therefore, the more often you remove the tip from the soldering iron and clean it, the longer their detachable connection will last.

Another problem that arises when removing the tip also leads to failure of the soldering iron. The fact is that the heating element is wound with a nichrome wire onto a micanite tube. The tip is inserted inside this tube with the smallest possible gap to ensure maximum heat transfer. If carbon deposits formed during operation have tightly locked these parts together, then disassembly will lead to rupture of the micanite insulation and short circuit of part of the winding turns to each other. It is difficult to notice this, and with further operation, due to the decrease in winding resistance, the current consumed by the soldering iron will increase, the nichrome will overheat and burn out. Therefore, if you haven’t taken the tip out of the soldering iron for a long time or it resists when removed, it’s better to leave everything as it is.

The size of the part of the tip placed inside the soldering iron during simple installation is limited by the fixing protrusions. When using a screw on the housing for this purpose, the installation depth must be set correctly. If the tip is too deep, the heating area increases, and the heat transfer decreases, since a smaller part of it will be outside. As a result, it will burn faster. In addition, rosin or fat during soldering will burn out before they end up in the right place.

Another malfunction typical of electric soldering irons with a nichrome heater is a violation of the insulation between the body and the heating element. Usually the damage occurs at the beginning or end of the winding, that is, closer to one of the terminals of the plug. The presence of a “phase” on the body of the soldering iron depends on its position in the socket. You can determine the presence of damage using a single-pole voltage indicator. To do this, you need to touch it to the body of a working soldering iron, then turn the plug over in the socket and repeat the test. If the pointer detects the presence of a “phase”, the soldering iron will have to be thrown away immediately. You can check the insulation condition with a tester or multimeter by measuring the resistance between the housing and any terminal of the plug.

The short circuit does not affect the work in any way, but if the worker touches metal objects with the tip and hand at the same time, he receives an electric shock. In addition, this can lead to failure of electronic components. When soldering them, all semiconductor elements of the device can be damaged. When the tip touches grounded metal objects, the soldering iron itself fails, since something happens inside it. short circuit. If the soldering iron is powered by a step-down transformer, then damage to its insulation does not affect electrical safety.

It is not recommended to leave an electric soldering iron on for a long time without performing any work, as this will burn the tip. If situations often arise where you need to pause work and then quickly resume it, you can assemble a small device with a switch and a diode. If it is necessary to put the soldering iron into “hot standby” for a while, power is supplied to it via a diode using a switch, and it begins to work with half the power. It is convenient to place the device in the housing of an extension cord that has a standard switch. In this case, you can make one socket switchable, and use the rest at your discretion, for example, to connect equipment being repaired, an oscilloscope or other measuring instruments. The soldering iron socket can be marked with a marker or other available methods.

Sometimes a limit switch is installed on the stand, switching the power supply to the soldering iron placed on it through a diode. This method has a drawback: each time you take the soldering iron from the stand, you will have to wait for it to warm up to the required temperature. This significantly slows down soldering.

You can also use the soldering iron power regulator. You can purchase it or make it yourself. But in some cases (for example, for soldering wires in junction boxes) this device will be superfluous. To work with electronic components Adjusting the temperature of the tip is of great value, so it is better to use for these purposes ceramic soldering irons or soldering stations that have regulation and stabilization of the tip temperature, and not simply changing the power consumed by the soldering iron.

Soldering iron Atten SS-50 with temperature controller

How to properly tin a copper tip on a soldering iron

The tip must be tinned before use. Otherwise, the solder will not stick to it and soldering will become impossible. Let's look at ways to properly tin a soldering iron tip. For this process you will need:

• rosin;
• solder;
• wooden block;
• fine-grit sandpaper or file.

We clean the working surface of the new tip with sandpaper placed on a block until it shines. If the tip has been in use, its surface is uneven and pitted with cavities, then before tinning it will have to be leveled with a file. It is better to do this by removing it from the soldering iron and holding it in a vice. If, for the reasons described above, dismantling the tip is impossible, then you can do without it. It is believed that it is better to form a plane for soldering not with a file, but by forging, gradually flattening the tip of the tip with a hammer. This process is more labor-intensive and requires certain skills, but as a result, the solder will wash out the copper of their tips less. Potholes will form more slowly in it, and re-tinning will not be required soon.

Now we install the tip in place and turn on the soldering iron. At the same time, we periodically control the heating by touching the rosin. As soon as it starts to melt, cover the entire work surface with it. During the process of burning out the rosin, we repeat the process periodically, waiting for the moment when the temperature becomes sufficient to melt the solder. As soon as this happens, cover the entire working surface of the tip with solder and shake off the excess.

The surface must be completely tinned. If there are gaps or the tip is not tinned, it means that the oxide was removed poorly. In order not to cool the soldering iron and not to clean the surface again, we use a little trick.

Place sandpaper on the block and a piece of rosin on it. We melt it with a soldering iron and clean the working surface of the tip with sandpaper in rosin. Add solder periodically. This method is also suitable for quickly restoring the work surface. As soon as untreated areas appear on it, it is recommended to correct the situation with sandpaper and rosin. This will be better than later leveling the surface with a file.

How to tin a non-burnable sting

A regular copper tip has the disadvantages that it gradually fades, requiring frequent repetition of the above cleaning procedures. It is impossible to remove all the solder from it, which is required for soldering the cases of some microcircuits.

Non-burnable tips, the surface of which is coated with a layer of nickel, do not have these disadvantages. But they need special care. The coating layer is thin and cannot be scratched. Therefore, nickel-plated tips cannot be cleaned with a file, needle file, or even sandpaper. You can’t even shake the solder off them by hitting them on the soldering iron stand. If the coating layer is damaged, then copper will be washed out from under it and the tip will become unusable. Therefore, it will not work to tin the same way as copper.

In order to tin a fireproof tip, you will need:

• a piece of cotton fabric (you can use an old towel);
• rosin;
• solder.

The fabric should be soaked generously in water and wrung out, and a small piece of solder should be thrown into the jar of rosin. Warm up the soldering iron, then vigorously rub its tip on a wet cloth, wiping off the oxides. Then quickly dip it into rosin, melting a piece of solder in it. The sting is tinned in a rosin medium, which dissolves the remaining oxides. After this, you need to wipe it on the same cloth that was used at first.

To clean the non-burning tips during operation, special cellulose sponges are used, which are sold in electronics stores. Before use, the sponge must be soaked in water, squeezing out the excess. It is better to use glycerin, but it will not dry out. When working, you need to periodically wipe the soldering iron tip on a sponge, removing oxides and excess solder.

You can also use a wire sponge (bast) made of brass or copper for these purposes. It is also sold in amateur radio stores. A stainless steel dishwashing sponge is also suitable, but only a soft one so that it does not scratch the tip.

But all these methods may not help if the soldering iron with a non-burnable tip overheats. Its temperature should not exceed 300 ˚С. Therefore, they should only be used in soldering irons that have temperature control with stabilization.

Power regulators will not help here, since it is difficult to select its operating mode. The temperature, depending on the intensity of soldering, constantly changes; when the soldering iron is idle on the stand, it is maximum; when the solder melts, it decreases. The network voltage can also change and affect the temperature. In ceramic soldering irons and soldering stations, adjustment is organized using a sensor built into the soldering iron. The initial temperature is set by the user, and the control device maintains it without his participation. It is also not recommended to keep a heated, non-burning tip for a long time without solder.

Another advantage of non-burning tips designed for ceramic soldering irons and soldering stations is that they are removable and easy to change. Manufacturers produce a wide range of blades of various shapes and sizes designed to perform different types of work. Owners of soldering irons with a nichrome heater have to resort to tricks to make them universal: come up with some kind of inserts, wind a thick wire around the tip copper wire. This does not make the soldering process more convenient, rather the opposite. And if you remember that changing the tip of such a soldering iron is sometimes not so easy, then you should completely forget about using various forms of heating surfaces for it.

Advantages and disadvantages of electric soldering irons

Ceramic soldering irons are compact and economical. Their heating element is built inside the tip and ensures its rapid heating. But these heating elements cannot withstand sudden temperature changes, so it is better not to cool them suddenly. Also, you should not use tips for which they are not designed: changing the operating temperature will instantly damage the heating element.

The most versatile tool for soldering is, of course, soldering stations. You can change the tips in them and smoothly regulate their temperature. Most of them operate at reduced voltage and are galvanically isolated from the mains supply, and also have the ability to connect ground to a soldering iron. Together with the use of a grounding bracelet, this helps prevent failure of radio-electronic components from static electricity and network interference.

Soldering stations have only one drawback: they take up more space on the table than a regular soldering iron, and they are difficult to work with in the field. Therefore, when choosing which soldering iron is better, you need to focus on what you will solder, where and how often. And the choice of soldering iron will determine which tip you will have to use.

Sometimes home craftsmen are perplexed as to why an electric soldering iron does not work well, even when recently purchased. This is often explained by the fact that its tip burns during operation, becoming covered with a layer of soot, and the solder does not want to stick to it. Many, of course, know that they need to remove carbon deposits and tin the soldering iron tip, but they do not follow all the operating rules. At the same time, the features of soldering irons of various designs are not always taken into account.

The soldering station is safe and convenient to work with, thanks to fine tuning operating temperature.

For high-quality work, the following devices, tools and aids are required:

• electric soldering iron with stand;
• file, sandpaper;
• stationery knife;
• pliers;
• vice;
• solder;
• flux;
• pieces of old terry towel;
• foam sponge;
• glycerol.

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Specifics of domestic electrical appliances

Photo 1. Soldering iron design.

The soldering iron you choose must match the nature of the work to be done. It is no coincidence that they differ in their power. A weak device will not be able to sufficiently heat large areas of soldering, and an overly powerful device will overheat and burn the metal.

The principle of choosing a suitable electric soldering iron is as follows: the larger the parts that need to be taken into work, the more powerful the device is needed.

Thus, installation of small electronic microcircuits is carried out with soldering irons from 4 to 18 W. To work with printed circuit boards their power varies from 25 to 60 W. And large parts, cases or chassis need to be soldered only with electrical appliances from 50 to 120 W.

In ordinary domestic soldering irons (see photo 1), the temperature to which the tip heats up is not regulated and can reach +450˚С. Such high temperature often not only unnecessary, but also harmful. Touching rosin is like a volcanic eruption. The soldering is of poor quality, and the operating part of the electrical device quickly wears out and fails.

For ordinary household needs, of course, a simple cheap soldering iron is quite suitable. And it’s better to acquire your first soldering skills starting with such a device. But if you have to do fine work, then it makes sense to purchase a so-called soldering station.

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Advantages of a soldering station

Its design includes a thermostat, thanks to which you can set the desired temperature of the tip. It is powered by a compact mini-transformer that provides low voltage from 12 to 36 V, so working with a soldering station is much safer. In addition, thanks to galvanic isolation, no network electromagnetic interference penetrates into soldered electronic parts, for example, into types of diodes that are especially sensitive to them.

Soldering iron tip temperature controller circuits.

In addition, domestic soldering irons use a copper tip of a reddish-red color. Copper has excellent thermal conductivity, but it has a significant drawback: it oxidizes extremely quickly upon contact with air. And a very thin film of copper oxide on the sting is enough for it to reject tin or its alloys.

The problem is that fluxes - means for removing films on the surfaces of soldered parts - corrode not only the oxides, but also the copper of the tip itself. In addition, it is gradually dissolved by solders. And over time, the working part of the soldering iron becomes unrecognizable: it is entirely filled with recesses and irregularities. Because of them, the sting has to be sharpened every now and then. When using rosin - sometimes weekly, and when using flux without rosin - almost every hour.

In Japan, China, the USA, and other countries, this deficiency has long been eliminated by producing durable, fireproof tips. They can be immediately distinguished from domestic ones by their shiny white color. This color is given to them by a thin protective layer of nickel, but the base of the tip is still the same copper.

When working with such a tip, the solder does not roll around on it, but goes exactly to the soldering point. The soldering station should be handled very carefully, without using harsh physical force. Otherwise, the nickel protection of the tip can be easily damaged, and due to exposed copper areas it will soon become unusable.

Soldering stations from global companies Hakko, Pace, Ersa, Weller, Antex, Adcola, Ungar have a thicker coating and last much longer, but they are also much more expensive than Chinese products. The tip of the Goot series (Japan) is especially durable, the copper rod of which is covered with a double thick layer: first steel, and then aluminum. But even such an “eternal” tip also cannot be left unprotected - it must be under a thin layer of solder.

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Rules for tinning a copper core

So, in order to be able to solder parts efficiently and quickly, you should tin the soldering iron tip (see video). First, the tip of a new or previously used device must be cleaned to a shine with a file and sandpaper. Moreover, completely - both its open part and that located in the body of the soldering iron. By the way, it is advisable to lubricate the inside of the tip with thermal paste - it improves thermal conductivity and makes subsequent removal of the tip easier.

Then the soldering iron is heated, periodically checking the condition of the rosin with the tip. Place a small piece of solder in a container with molten rosin. Then quickly lower the tip, stripped and wiped with a wet cloth, placing it under a piece of solder.

In this case, liquid rosin cleans the core from copper oxide, and melting solder immediately tins it. There is no need to save rosin - if there is not enough of it, the solder will be distributed unevenly over the surface of the tip, with tubercles. And you need to ensure that its layer is uniform.

Then all that remains is to quickly remove the excess coating by wiping the tip with a wet towel.

And from now on, you need to make sure that it does not heat up above +300˚С, otherwise the core will oxidize again and all the work will be useless.

Some craftsmen vary the temperature by connecting a dimmer to a soldering iron - a room lighting power regulator.

To tin the tip of the device, experienced craftsmen They use POS-40 brand solder (with 40% tin) in the form of thick rods, which are usually flattened before work. “POS-61” solder is less desirable - it melts easier, so its layer on the core burns out much faster. It is most convenient to apply solder to the tip with a second, more powerful soldering iron.

If those who already know how to solder correctly have come to this page, then the information is unlikely to be useful to you; this is a manual for beginners.

Electronics for beginners begins with soldering. This is an axiom. Learning to solder is quite simple, as in any business, you need practice. If the soldering kit is ready, then it’s time to start preparing the tool.

Sharpening the soldering iron tip.

Before soldering, you need to prepare a new soldering iron for use, or rather, sharpen the tip to a certain shape and cover it with a thin layer of solder.

The tip must be sharpened with a file at an angle of 30-40 degrees, so as to form a wedge. The sharp edge of the sting should be blunted to create a flat edge about 1 mm wide. Usually, new soldering irons have a tip already sharpened with a wedge, but it is covered with a layer of patina - greenish oxide of copper and oxygen. This oxide must be removed with a metal file or fine-grained sandpaper.

In addition to the “classic” wedge-shaped tip, you can give it another shape, it all depends on what you will be soldering. For soldering small parts, you can make it shaped like an elongated cone with an edge width of 2 - 3 mm. Or make a cut in the edge so that you can solder SMD resistors with one touch.

Immediately after sharpening the tip, you need to install it in the soldering iron and tin it. If you do not do this, the copper surface of the tip will oxidize in the air and it will have to be sharpened again!

Tin the soldering iron tip.

Next, you need to tin the tip, that is, cover it with a thin layer of solder. To do this, we plug in the electric soldering iron and wait for the copper rod to warm up to a certain temperature. When the tip warms up, it will become noticeable by a reddish tint; the copper will turn reddish-orange. You should not delay warming up, otherwise the tip will burn. As soon as the sting acquires a slightly reddish tint, it must be leaned against lump rosin or resin.

This will produce a lot of smoke. Cover the entire tip with melted rosin. Next, melt a small piece of solder so that it spreads evenly over the surface. You can rub the tip on a wooden board, so the solder will be better distributed over the copper surface.

The copper tip should be covered with an even layer of solder. If there are areas on the surface that are not covered with solder, it is better to repeat the process again.

This is how the soldering iron is prepared for work. The process will need to be repeated as necessary, but this is often not necessary.

I wrote everything in quite detail to make it as easy as possible for beginners.

Soldering iron care.

Like any other tool, a soldering iron requires maintenance. From time to time, the tip of the soldering iron burns out, and potholes and irregularities appear on it. Burnout is eliminated by sharpening the tip and tinning it. You should also pay attention to the fact that with prolonged use, the rod becomes covered with scale, which prevents rapid heating.

Why does the soldering iron tip burn out? The fact is that when heated, copper partially dissolves in the solder, and the edge of the tip itself is subjected to, albeit a small, mechanical effect. It is also worth understanding that when the soldering iron is not in use, the tip becomes very hot and this contributes to the oxidation of copper. Therefore, when idle, it is recommended to either turn off the soldering iron or reduce the temperature. A conventional electric soldering iron of the EPSN type does not have temperature control, so it is better to turn it off when idle.

Scale is removed as follows.

Use pliers to remove the copper rod from the soldering iron. Remove scale from the rod using fine-grained sandpaper. You can coat the lead with a small layer of graphite by rubbing it on the lead of a regular pencil. This will prevent rapid scale formation in the future. By lightly tapping the heating element of the soldering iron, remove scale from the heating element where the copper rod was installed. Install the copper rod in its original place.

The insulation condition of the electric soldering iron should be checked from time to time. To do this, measure the resistance between the soldering iron's power plug and the soldering tip. I have already talked about how to measure resistance. The ohmmeter should be set to a megaohm measurement limit (1 - 10 MΩ). Remember that you cannot touch the metal probes of the multimeter with your hands when measuring resistance. Otherwise, the device will show the total resistance of your body and the measured circuit. The device should show infinitely high resistance. This will be evidence of good insulation between the soldering iron tip and the electrical network.

For those who have already acquired a soldering station, replaceable 900M copper tips are suitable. They also require preparation before operation.