Pure copper soldering iron tips (with no plating)? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: seanspotatobusiness
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 12:38:21 am
content: There are sellers of copper soldering iron tips which have no plating. My understanding and own experience of having damaged tips in the past is that copper dissolves in solder in which case won't these tips slowly dissolve with use? Are people meant to plate them themselves or what?

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 01:20:43 am
content: Quote from: seanspotatobusiness on September 18, 2018, 12:38:21 amAbsolutely. But they will beamazinglyeasy to manufacture.QuoteNo. User plating of tips is not a thing ... at all.You will be expected to just keep buying more tips.

author: chickenHeadKnob
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 01:35:26 am
content: Back in the olden days soldering " irons " were simply square cross section copper bars with an attached handle. You would heat them in a fire and then use their thermal mass to heat the work and effect the join. The tips and work were usually tined with solder and plumbers fluxsal ammoniac (ammonium chloride)used as flux. Yes the copper will dissolve slowly and get fouled with dross so you will need to re-tin and clean often. Back in junior high school when schools still had metal workshop courses I used this type of primitive iron to fabricate sealed tin plate boxes.In his latest video clickspring shows this and talks about how ancient the technique is.:

author: drussell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 01:35:54 am
content: The non-plated copper tips are used for things like artistic wood-burning, etc.

author: cvanc
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 01:45:45 am
content: That is not true; unplated copper tips willnotdissolve slowly with use.They will dissolve quickly with use

author: BurningTantalum
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 02:51:03 am
content: My main iron is a Pace MBT. It uses the 1/8" shank tips which are quite hard to find these days. I managed to obtain a pack of the later 3/16" tips, and turn the shanks down on the lathe. They seem to last for ages.Recently a friend acquired a load of plated tips of unknown make (sold originally by a large hardware store according to the price label) They were plated, and he gave me a bunch of them. I turned the shanks down for the Pace, and used one for a while but the plating disappeared in a matter of weeks of hobby use. I filed the tip to plain copper and have been using it for months. It looks fine and I have not noticed any shortcomings in use.BT

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 03:03:42 am
content: Quote from: seanspotatobusiness on September 18, 2018, 12:38:21 amMaybe you could use Multicore Savbit solder? It is already alloyed with copper, so it doesn't dissolve much extra copper from the tip.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 04:09:16 am
content: The usability of a plain copper tip is also highly dependent on its actual tip profile. A hoof tip, tinned on the face and its edges only and oxidised and oiled on the sides (with a high temperature drying vegetable oil) to form a protective coating, can easily be dressed with a file or stone to eliminate pitting then immediately retinned. Of course it needs excess length in the first place to remain usable after repeated dressing.A chisel or knife bit is more problematic as it needs at least two faces dressed, and pitting will tend to erode the corners and edges. A conical bit is even more problematic as one tends to get large cavities in the sides near the tip, and they cant be dressed keeping the profile without removing a large amount of metal on all side.Another issue affecting the rate of pitting is how aggressive the flux is, and if the iron is use infrequently, one should avoid corrosive fluxes.

author: saike
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2018, 04:44:00 am
content: I have just been using these tips for hand soldering some 0.5mm pitch components with no solder mask. They seem to concentrate heat right at the end of the tip a lot better than the steel plated parts. The downside as stated is that after a few hours, the tip is a few mm. shorter than when the job started.