On Nov 29, 5:26*am, wrote:
How do you know when your soldering iron is tinned?
I keep mine plugged in *for 5-10 minutes then when I try tin it, the
solder beads up and just drips offs. *It doesn't seem to "wet" the
tip.
Is it suppose to wet the tip of the soldering iron?

I'm using non lead solder, 95%Sn, 5% Sb (Tin/Antimony).
Rosin core.

Also, when 1 solder two wires together, I twist the wires together,
then hold the iron to one side of the wire and hold the solder to the
opposite site. *The wire should get hot and soak up the solder, right?
I've been practicing but it seems to be hit or miss so far.

Bonnie

to tin your soldering iron you need to clean the crap off and put flux
on it and dab bit of solder on. It will spread on the tip giving a
shiny appearance. After a while, it oxydises & you have to repeat the
process. The benifit is that you get a rapid heat transferr fron the
iron to the solder and the job/workpiece.
Solders with a high tin content works best but are expensive. Some
solders have no lead in at all, they are harder to deal with I have
found.
There are lots of different fluxes for different metals and types of
solder, you need to get the one recommended. Sometimes they are
incompatible, sometimes not.