soldering iron tips: problems

[choklitlove]

i don't know why, but i have a hell of a time with tips burning (oxidizing?) over.  they're just black and soldering can't take to them.  it just happened the first time i used a new tip.  i have tried different temperatures and solder.  i thought i was using them correctly...

is there any way to get these tips to work again?  if not, how can this be avoided?

[Peter Snowberg]

Try a search for iron tip black and you'll get lots of posts. 

[JimRayden]

Discussed quite recently:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=44172.msg320897#msg320897

The trick is, you need to keep the tip tinned at all times.

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Jimbo