"Jim Adney" bravely wrote to "All" (29 Aug 04 21:16:28)
--- on the heady topic of " how do you clean your tip?"

JA From: Jim Adney

JA On Sunday, 29 Aug 2004 11:08:40 -500 "Asimov"
JA wrote:

"Eric" bravely wrote to "All" (29 Aug 04 22:10:20)
--- on the heady topic of " how do you clean your tip?"

It seems to work well that way in the experimenting I've done.

JA I'm surprised, but if you say that it has worked for you then I'll
JA just have to remain surprised.

JA In general, getting the solder to wet both the tip and the work is the
JA essential part of transferring heat to the work. Heat transfer without
JA wetting is much poorer and is quite often insufficient for the job.

That is indeed what happens when a copper tip goes dry. The oxide film
seems to be a very effective barrier to the heat transfer. By
comparison, with Aluminum its oxide is only molecules thick and good
metal to metal heat transfer occurs at the slightest application of
pressure. From my experience, it did work well for desoldering but
I'll have to experiment soldering with a thick Al tip. Maybe a
slightly different method can be made workable, in contrast to the
usual soldering common sense of wetting the tip and the work.

A*s*i*m*o*v

.... I worked hard to attach the electrodes to it.