What's a good brand of soldering iron tip?

[vortex]

Just looking at the week old soldering tip on my new cheapy iron. It started out as a sharp point, now it's a club!
Who makes a good tip??

[mojotron]

I haven't found one, but I just get a longer one and use a small file to keep it sharp.. that works well for me.

I'm going to try using really thick wire some day... RDV was posting a few months ago about making your own tips, but I haven't had to replace a tip lately - just a little filing...

[bwanasonic]

Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station...

You will never need to take a file to your tip, or any such horrific thing! Your tips will maintain their shape for months if not years. If the tip of your iron is losing shape rapidly (within weeks), you have a crappy iron and/or are letting it get too hot and stay that way for too long.  If you are using your iron enough that you need replacement tips regularly, it is certainly worth getting a temperature controlled station.


http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/7483


Kerry M

[mojotron]

Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station, Buy a decent soldering station......

Hmmm, so in other words your saying "Buy a decent soldering station"  

Ya, I would second that as well... I've had better ones than the one I have right now - in most cases, I can do the same work with this cheap one, but I could do more detailed work when I had a good one - it even shut it's self off after a while and I had a few different tips for it...

OTOH, the cheap 25W iron I use right now desolders w/braid better than anything I have ever used.

[NaBo]

I can't wait to get a nice little station...  I'm kind of counting on the birthday coming up to take care of that...  or maybe a cage for the ferret me and my girlfriend are planning on getting this summer...  its still a toss-up.  I know i know, it's a soldering station, and it would be an invaluable addition to my tool collection...  BUT HAVE YOU SEEN HOW CUTE THE LIL GUYS ARE?!?!?!  

I'm horrible with my tips though... I've had a "club" for the past 4 months...  :oops:  But I'll admit it... keeping tips sharp and clean and good is more a result of good practices and habits, not so much who formed the metal...

[ESPguitar]

This is what you should have:D

http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=showMyPhoto&albumID=301426109&photoID=323602103&security=rnRcZt

It's what i call quality:P

RB

[dr]

....I have an old iron (I don't know who it was made by...) the tips looked like 12-14 gauge copper wire; anyway I took a tap out of my tap and die set until I found the right size; then I got a couple of scrap pieces from the neighbor when they updated their wiring.I got out a die and put a piece at a time into my hand drill and tapped one end and took it out and cu an angled tip on the other end. Been doing this for years now,no problems......

[dosmun]

Copper tips don't last at all.  If your going to be doing much soldering just get the $35? soldering station from Circuit Specialists.  It is cheap and works awesome.

[niftydog]

modern soldering iron tips are plated.

filing modern soldering iron tips removes this plating.

Plating is good. Filing is bad!

If you tin and clean religiously (ie; before and after every joint), you should never have to do anything more to keep the tip in good working order for a long, long time.

I have used the same tip at work for the last five years without problems. I occasionaly dunk it in tip cleaning gunk, that hard stuff in a little tin. It seems to restore the plating very nicely and removes the hard baked-on flux.