Homebrew PCBs

Sorry to keep hounding you people with questions, but there's a decent 
amount of knowledge in here. :)

I've been told that it's OK to re-grind the regular style copper 
soldering tips, and I've been doing so. I usually spin them in a press 
and by working up to a high grit emery cloth, I can get a nice sharp, 
shiny point.

Trouble is, they turn a smoky grayish black soon after they heat up, 
and they can't be flooded with clean solder, so they don't often 
retain and release it properly while I'm using them.

Am I expecting too much, or is there an additional step I'm missing in 
prepping them? I do remember some weird recommendation of coating with 
a plumber's flux/solder and a torch, but it may not have been copper 
(or a good idea for that matter).

                            -Thanks Again!
George

There is ammonium chloride stones which you sort of press the iron against  
and it helps tinning.
What i did WAY back then before i had any tools was file the tips while  
hot and tin immediately. Always keep tin on the tip.

But really, do yourself a favour and get a temperature controlled station  
with plated longlife tips. It isn't that expensive and it is like the  
difference between a stone axe and a chainsaw.

ST

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 01:27:34 +0100, soffee83 <soffee83@...> wrote:

> Sorry to keep hounding you people with questions, but there's a decent
> amount of knowledge in here. :)
>
> I've been told that it's OK to re-grind the regular style copper
> soldering tips, and I've been doing so. I usually spin them in a press
> and by working up to a high grit emery cloth, I can get a nice sharp,
> shiny point.
>
> Trouble is, they turn a smoky grayish black soon after they heat up,
> and they can't be flooded with clean solder, so they don't often
> retain and release it properly while I'm using them.
>
> Am I expecting too much, or is there an additional step I'm missing in
> prepping them? I do remember some weird recommendation of coating with
> a plumber's flux/solder and a torch, but it may not have been copper
> (or a good idea for that matter).
>
>                             -Thanks Again!
> George
>

I asked this in another forum too and just replied with some recent 
good news. It's pasted below. 

Stefan, that cleaner sounds like a few of those things I've got here 
that come in a little "cake" container. It's a weird glittery silver 
color. Problem is, the packaging sucks. It's hard to get to the bulk 
of it after you've melted some holes in the top layer. I do have a 
nice Weller/Ungar rework rig here with a temp control, and I've got 
plated tips for it and for my usual Ungar iron, but I've got a bunch 
of coppers for the regular one and it's more portable if I want to 
work in front of a TV or something. The iron on the rework thing is 
also sort of "small handled" and often heats up at the grip area. Your 
grinding while hot idea is probably related to what I did last night. 
Someone also recommended purified water in the sponge, so I'll be 
using that as well.
                Thanks!
George

<pasted>
I think I made some headway with this last night. I may have been 
waiting too long between the grinding and soldering stages, and 
allowing something to happen to the tip. Someone in the PCB group 
grinds his while it's hot.


Last night I ground the tips in the press and smoothed them back up 
afterward. I then screwed one onto the iron and carefully wiped the 
tip with a paper towel wet with ferric chloride to eat whatever might 
be on the surface layer (not sure that's a good idea). I waited a 
minute, and twisted some steel wool around it to clean it off. I 
immediately smeared flux over it and began heating it up. I started 
touching the solder to it before it was hot enough to melt, and as 
soon as it would melt, I was able to "paint" the whole tip with 
solder. Two of them were cooled down and put away with the solder on 
them, and the third, I was able to use the rest of the night, being 
careful to keep it clean and coated.


                                                            -Take Care