sticky solder

I have been using mostly the same solder, tho temporarily using some smaller stuff, and the same soldering iron, for months now.

All of a sudden my solder seems to glom up on the tip much much more than it used to. is the tip too dirty? could I clean it to make this better, or is it time to get a new one?

That, or could it be releated to the change in solder? especially if the two had different activation temperatures, or maybe the temperature outside?

thanks

What kind of iron? Something with a tip temperature that you can control?

Are you switching between lead and lead-free solder? Lead solder melts at a lower temperature, lead-free at a higher temperature.

Either you have different solder or your iron is running colder. If your iron isn't
temperature controlled it will run colder in a colder room, which might make a
small difference.

You do clean the tip every few joints and before tinning on a wet sponge?

PS If you soldering iron is not temperature controlled consider upgrading...

blah44:
could I clean it to make this better,

The mere fact that you ask this is enough to tell me YES it absolutely needs cleaning.

To maintain my tips, I like using something like this tinner: http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/solder/tip-tinner/tip-tinner-4910/

and a brass sponge.

When I start using it, I dip my iron into that stuff, then wipe it with the sponge. When I'm done, I dip my iron in and let it coat the tip until the next time I use it.

+1. That made a huge difference for me.

MarkT:
You do clean the tip every few joints and before tinning on a wet sponge?

Mark, as people have noted, use a brass "sponge" instead of a wet sponge for this. It's much better for the iron's tip.

The reason why (or at least what I have read - if you know of an actual study on this, I'm all eyes!) is that by quenching the tip of the iron to a much cooler temperature (relatively), micro-cracks can develop in the plating on the iron, leading to a faster breakdown of the tip (well, the inner copper).

Also - on a non-temperature controlled iron, cooling the tip in this manner also means you have to wait for it to come back up to proper temperature before you can continue to use it. That's not really a problem with temperature controlled irons, though.

The problem with the brass sponge method of cleaning is that the iron coating on the tip can be scratched. The trick is to have a damp sponge not a wet one so the cooling is minimised. That is what the soldering iron manafacaturers recomend.

Dry kitchen roll, no effect on temperature or degradation of tip plating.
Keep tip clean, don't let iron stand for long times at full temp, flood the tip with solder when done and leave it with a blob of solid solder covering tip.

I have both a damp sponge and brass wool. I only resort to the brass wool when it gets very dirty.

Damp, not wet as pointed out. But also make sure it is a cellulose sponge. Many kitchen sponges are now a sponge rubber that melts and makes the tip dirty.

The cheap sponges that get hard when they dry out. Sometimes they come compressed. I cut grooves in them to help wipe the tip, and a hole in the center so most of the solder drops in there.

I can pick up packages of 4 to 6 of these sponges for a dollar each. My iron holder has a place in the base for it, with a reservoir under it. A small square of sponge wicks just enough moisture up into the main sponge to keep it damp.

The reservoir is merely ridges that hold the sponge above the water. Since it the iron holder base (Pace) is aluminum, every week or so I clean out the reservoir of solder bits and corrosion, and spray it with WD-40, then wipe out the WD-40 before putting water and sponges back in.

Wet, not damp. You need to boil water to blast off the debris, not burn the sponge! (Temperature controlled irons can cope with the cooling.)

Fingers. I just use my fingers.

Well, only when there is nothing else.

In really tough situations, I grab my wife's block of SalAmoniac that she got ages ago for her stained glass work. It sort of works some pretty fast chemical magic on the tip and soldering returns back to normal in no time. Also, try to make sure that you are not running your tip to hot.

Here's an interesting document:

http://www.newark.com/pdfs/techarticles/oki-metcal/extendingTipLife.pdf

Mark, Grumpy:

Apparently, you are both right, at least according to the above document - a wet (damp?) sponge - they say wet in the above document.

However, they also talk about cleaning with a brass brush; also, nickel, chrome, and iron are all harder than brass - so I don't know how a brass sponge could compromise the plating.

Some more info:

https://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&p=78520

It seems the above thread also agrees with the earlier PDF - if using a wet/damp sponge, you should use de-ionized water on it, and not regular water (because of dissolved minerals, which can lead to tip corrosion and damage). But it also talks about for when a wet sponge vs a brass sponge should be used, which is interesting.

...and here is another point of view:

http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/TechspraySolderTips.pdf

Again, recommending against the overuse of a brass sponge - although I am still not sure how a softer metal could abrade a harder metal and damage it.

A lot of the discussion and notes on "brass vs wet" sponges seem to be anecdotal in nature; I would certainly love to see an actual scientific study on what works best to keep an iron clean, and give the tips the longest life.

Then again - iron tips are cheap - which is why such a study might not have been done (but I haven't done an exhaustive search, either)...

MarkT:
You do clean the tip every few joints

You are still talking about soldering, I hope......

I have been using mostly the same solder, tho temporarily using some smaller stuff, and the same soldering iron, for months now.

Probably time to buy a new tip. Once a tip starts to have issues, it will probably keep getting worse.