How To Clean Soldering Iron
In such a way you will be able to clean thoroughly.
How to clean soldering iron. Once clean and shiny perform tinning and now your tool is ready to use. Once you have all your tools ready you can start removing the solder from your boards and components. If you clean off the rust and spot a hole in the iron coating recognizable by the copper color showing through from the inside or if any part of the tip appears hollowed out its done.
Soldering iron only works if there is a temperature difference. Wipe OFF the solder on the Cleaning Sponge or Copper Wool. Wipe the tip clean and re-tin it between every joint.
Wait till the iron is completely cool for 15-20 minutes then turn it off. Keep in mind that you always need to let the tip of the soldering iron cool down before cleaning. Most of the time this works.
Melt some good quality of solder wire on the Tip. The steel wool is made with alloys that dont react quickly on the soldering iron. Either they become too dry or they are so wet that the fast cooling might destroy the first layer of the solder iron.
Move the sponge all around the tip and clean. Secondly heat the solder and pour on the tip of the soldering iron and clean it again. The flux will be activated by the heat that will start a chemical reaction to eliminate the oxidation.
Begin cleaning the tip with a damp sponge preferably free. This should lead to a clean shiny tip ready for use. From the start I had problems wetting the tip.