soldering tip is dull

why is my soldering tip being eaten

I just bought a new tip and within 3 hours of continuous soldering, the tip becomes dull like someone had sawed off the tip with a blade. Is it just a cheap tip or am i doing something worng? I bought it at the .99 cent store so...

You got what you paid for. Good tips are coated with a special material which prevents these problems. These low cost tips are intended for people who do only a few minutes of soldering a year.

You can help things along by rubbing the tip with metal wool material to scrape off some of the scales. All safety rules apply such as wearing a face protector because of the possibility of flinging off hot blobs of solder.

For those who see this thread. I have got this method that works for me. Apply some solder on the tip and wipe them off using the moist sponge. that might help.

The biggest trick to soldering is keeping the tip clean. When a iron sits without being used the tip oxidizes ( tarnish ) which effects heat transfer.
Cleaning the tip and applying solder to make the tip shiny is called re-tinning.
Use a piece of steel wool or fine sandpaper to clean the tip on, then cover tip with solder.
When ready to use flick off excess solder clean tip on a damp sponge and then solder. When done recover the tip with solder to prevent it from re-oxidizing. THere is alos a tip cleaning compound you can buy that comes in a tiny little tin. inside it looks like its filled with grey/silver compound.this compound is an abrasive with silver solder for retinning the tip.

When I was a young electronics hobbiest, I bought cheap tools and had endless trouble with tip oxidation. Years later I discovered Weller and Ungar tools, and Multicore solder. More expensive, but the problem disappeared.

skydiverc suggested a tip cleaner. I use Multicore TTC1. Works great!

House_Cat is correct. If you tip is bare copper or poorly plated, then it will erode quickly.

Most of the answers above explain how to keep a tip tinned and shiny. I went back and read your orignal message again - you are complaining that metal is being eaten away from the tip and you are losing the point on the tip.

An eroding tip is frequently caused by the operator melting the solder on the tip of the iron when soldering a joint. The solder and flux react with the metal of the soldering tip, and a small amount of alloyed tip material is transferred into each joint you solder.

The proper way to solder a joint is to heat the JOINT using the iron until the JOINT is hot enough to melt the solder. Flow the solder on the joint itself - not from the tip of the soldering pencil to the joint.

Condition your new tip by tinning it. Then, as you use the tip, clean it frequently by wiping away the excess flux, dirt, and metal oxides that accumulate on the tip. The easiest way to wipe the tip is to keep a small damp sponge near your work area, and simply wipe the tip across the sponge periodically. Re-tin the tip if it stops looking clean when you wipe it.

Obviously, better tips are made of better materials. A cheap plain copper tip is not going to last as long as one made of a hardened, plated material. However, if you follow the proper soldering and cleaning method above, you can extend the life of your equipment.

This is probably a bit pointless, but you should check to see what type of solder you're using as well. Even if you do adhere to all of the above guidelines but you use acid cored solder, you will end up with a ton of corrosion on your tip. Always use resin cored solder.

If you want to be safe from your equipment disintegrating, follow the guidelines everyone has mentioned, buy yourself a quality soldering iron such as a Weller, and get some good quality solder wire (resin cored silver solder works really well for fine electronics work).