Like any tool you want to last for a long time, it needs to be taken care of. A soldering iron is no different.
Soldering irons are not that expensive, but any money spent will affect your budget, especially if it is an unneeded expense due to misuse.
Most soldering irons you purchase have interchangeable tips. In N scale modeling, you will most likely use only the fine point tip or the flat head tip. I have found that I use the fine point tip on most everything I solder because all the parts are very small.
You bought a new soldering iron and put on the fine tip, so let’s start soldering. HANG ON THERE! You’re not quite ready to solder yet. We need to prep the tip first.
Prepping the tip is necessary if you want a good solder connection. If you don’t initially prep the tip, you will find it very difficult to do soldering or get the solder to do what it’s supposed to do.
There are a few things to do when prepping the tip.
First, you need to have steel wool handy. Sometimes your iron will come with brass or colored brass steel wool. It will come in a small tin can. This should always be by your iron because you should be using it anytime you do soldering.
Take the steel wool and rub the end of the tip with it by circling the tip with the steel wool. What we are doing is getting off any oils and glaze that are left from the manufacturer.
After you have rubbed the tip with steel wool, put the tip on the soldering iron if you haven’t already done so. Before heating the iron up, we are going to wrap some solder around the end of the tip and go up about a 1/4 of the length of the tip.
You will want to place a small sheet of aluminum foil for this step.
With a sheet of aluminum foil lying flat on your work table, take your soldering iron with the wrapped solder on the tip and heat up your iron. You will slowly see the solder melting on the tip. The melting solder will drip off and fall on the aluminum foil.
After all the solder has melted, with the iron still heated, take some flux and dip the tip into the flux and pull it back out. It’s just a quick dip and back out. Don’t hold it in the flux for any length of time. It will smoke and produce some fumes, so be ready for that. You will want to dip it in the flux a few times for about 30 seconds before the second dip. Now turn off or unplug your iron and let it cool down.
After the iron has cooled, again wrap the tip like you did before with solder. Don’t clean the tip or rub off anything on it (the tip should look blackened or brownish in color).
After wrapping the solder around the tip, once again, heat up your iron and melt the solder that you wrapped around the tip. This time you should notice that you have dripped less solder and your tip is now becoming shiny with leftover solder. This is what we want.
After the solder has melted, take your hot iron and with a back-and-forth motion, rub it in the steel wool. This is called cleaning your tip.
You should clean your tip every time you solder. If your soldering iron didn’t come with one, you need to get a small sponge. The sponge shouldn’t be waterlogged, but it should be wet.
After cleaning the tip, run the hot tip over the wet sponge. This will rapidly reduce the heat in the tip. This helps to quickly harden any solder in the micro-scratches on the tip.
Now, with the iron still on, take your solder and add a little to your tip. The tip should naturally grab and melt the solder into a tiny ball shape around the end of the tip. After you have done this, turn off or unplug your iron to let it start cooling again.
Once again, reheat your iron. Once it is hot again, rub it once more in the steel wool, then quickly dab the tip onto the wet sponge. Now we are ready to solder and your tip has been prepped.
Generally, you will only need to prep your tip if it has never been used before. Never use sandpaper on your tip to clean it. Always use the steel wool. Sandpaper puts too deep of scratches on your tip and will greatly shorten its lifespan.
When soldering anything, you will want to always use a little flux. Flux will help the solder to run (coat) what you are joining together, and it will ensure a good electrical connection that won’t pull apart. You will also find some metals that are somewhat resistant to solder, like nickel rail. If you try to solder it without flux, you will find it very hard to get the solder to adhere, and if you do manage to get it to adhere, it will easily break loose. Taking a small round file and making a few light strokes on nickel rail, then adding a thin coat of flux, you will find the solder running to coat those scratches and giving you a solid connection, whether it’s wires or just soldering a joint together.
When soldering wires, you will want to “tin” the wires first.
Tinning is adding a thin coat of solder to the wire before soldering another wire to it.
To tin a wire, add a very small amount of flux to the bare wire. With an up-to-temp iron, add a little bit of solder to the tip of the iron, then touch the tip to the wire, and you will see the solder transfer from the tip to the wire. Now you have a tinned wire.
You should always tin your wires before soldering them to whatever you’re soldering together. You will create a strong and more reliable bond if you do. You can solder wires without tinning, but it will take longer for it to bond, and you are creating more heat on the wire than necessary. The quicker you can get the solder to bind, the better, especially if you are soldering electrical components.
As always, check out YouTube for videos on how to properly prep your soldering tips.
Before shutting off your iron, you will want to clean it first in the steel wool, then add a little solder to the tip, place the iron in its holder, and turn it off, letting the solder cool on the tip. This will keep your soldering tip from oxidizing when not in use.
Happy Soldering!