"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
I have a perceived need to make my own custom soldering iron tip for a
moderately high volume rework job. Are these typically made of copper
and then plated with something? Does anyone who's done this have any
tips (no pun intended) for me?

Usually iron over copper these days, I think. However, that said, today I
received a new bit that I had ordered for my Antex temperature controlled
station's iron, and the plating was very bright, like chrome, so I'm not
sure just what the composition of that one is. Maybe they've had to change
to something a bit more durable to cope with the more aggressive flux cores
in crappy lead-free solder ...

Also, instead of the normal Antex split skirt and spring collar, which have
a tendency to seize unless you turn them daily, this one has a solid skirt,
and is retained on the shaft by a thin sheet of metal rolled into a tube,
and inserted inside the skirt.

I have to say though, that it did tin very nicely. Be interesting to see how
long it lasts with the iron idling away all day, as it does.

Arfa