"I (and countless others) learned to solder in grade school" - Congrats. I wasn't allowed anything that could risk me burning myself or something else (anything electronic that I wanted to do I had to do in secret), and had to start learning on my own as an adult without any exposure to anyone around me who had soldering experience. I'm glad that you were in a better situation than that growing up.
This thread, FYI, started out with rather contradictory advise, but has since progressed in a way that has been helpful and productive, for which I'm appreciative. I assume you read past that post, or no?
Take each response in context with the responders' interpretation of your environment. Not contradictory.
Eh... same to you.
I understand an adult working in the real world not having the fearless learning capacity of a child. It is real. So now, as an adult, apply your real world work ethics to learning... by making mistakes... really... reporting your observations, burning yourself, and re-doing some things a hundred times. It is worth the effort to gain another real world application.
At 35, I had taken two months of classes with 5 to 8 years children (figure skating 1 through 8) because I wanted to enjoy ice skating (and not fear being hurt). Ignore their laughs. I know your feelings. Enjoy the adventure.
It makes sense from a Mohs hardness scale, and given how thin the outer layer of the tip is, to use brass rather than steel. I kind of wonder, in the future, whether it might be smart to use a small brass brush attachment on my drill to get a good clean...
Best practice is to tin the soldering iron with solder, the apply the heat to whatever youâre soldering, then put tiny more amount of solder to the pin(s)
Its always best practice to use solder flux on the pcb where youâre soldering. Youâll need to wipe it off with isopropyl alcohol afterwards
If you have a soldering station where you can set the temperature, make sure its not too cold or hot, otherwise youâll have issues
Mine is similar to that offering, it cost me about $35.00.
Itâs as good as the Hakko equivalent.
However, if you have a DMM with a temperature setting with a thermocouple, it will do just fine.
Means - remove all burnt crap from the solder tip.
What you did was not cleaning.
The soldering tip you use is a copper, covered with nickel or some other alloy. You removed this cover, instead of cleaning it. Clean with wet sponges, like this:
Easier for you is to replace the tip. If you donât have any replacement, then heat you soldering iron, quickly clean it with metal sponge, dip it into soldering flux, and then quickly dip it into molten solder/tin. It will help but not for long time: the tip you use is likely hollow body, that means tin will eat it very fast
