hot air and soldering iron shaft cleaning - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 01:58:32 am
content: So what is the best way to clean the non-tip parts of the hot air station and soldering stations (i.e. the shaft)?I just cleaned a disgusting hot air station that was discolored, had a broken strain relief and a slightly melted cable insulation, and a molten holder (I stuffed epoxy putty in here after alcohol cleaning, the surface condition was 'lava stone after meteorite impact').The hot air station was set into the plastic holder which melted and bubbled and stuck to the hot air neck and got disgusting. I scraped it off with a razor and then I used Noxxon metal polish on a buff in a dremel at low speed to get rid of most of the discoloration (this took a while), then switched to a 400 grit scotch brite buff to go over some areas that were not doing too well then went back to the noxxon and tried to polish it back up.Afterwards I washed it in hot water with a stiff brush and dipped it into a ultrasonic cleaner.For the shaft of a soldering iron that was discolored (hakko), I put it in a bag, poured some tarn-x in there, displaced the air from the bag using submersion and kept it inside of an ultrasonic cleaner for ~30 minutes, this got most of the crap off. I used green scotch brite for this by hand with stainless steel cleaner and unfortunately the results came out worse then the hot air station, I think the stainless steel scrubbing powder with green sotch brite were too aggressive, and I should have used a dremel with the buff and 400 grit. This soldering iron was 10 years old, used heavily, and looks alot better now, I feel like I can make the shaft look better if I go over it with progressive scotch brite buffs and then use noxxon polish on it with the buff.But I am wondering is there a better solution, this one is hard core. Is there maybe a nice dip that works well for getting rid of black discoloration on stuff that was used for heating? Maybe a high strength version of the tarn-x (it is meant for spoons).I feel like the tarn-x cleaner is close to the right thing, it turns grey as it works and slowly makes the shaft look better.I thought maybe nitric acid? it is used for de-smut, which I think is what this is kinda related to.Anyway the hot air station made me wanna give up on life or at least quality every time I looked at it, and it looks rather good now, but it took an hour. I wanted some kind of periodic maintenance wipe or something that keeps it looking decent without the crazy restoration methods.top: sup par hakko job with tarn-x and scotch brite after maybe 1 hour uselower : salvage operation on hot air blower, tarn-x in ultrasonic with no abrasion, followed up by high temperature test (normally should not get this hot, need a re-clean).Lower: new old stock solder-xtractor after maybe 1 hour work, guess this won't last too long. but it was uncleaned, maybe it had oil or something on it after being stored in a bag for 10? yearslowest : finished hot air station, looks good but I did not use it yet.I thought maybe if I get them all to a nice shine with the scotch brite progressive buffs (up to 400 grit) then use polishing compound (the jewelry kind) to get them to a mirror finish, they will last the longest ? I know the tip of the 2nd one down needs some aggressive work for sure, but I just wanted to get it slightly clean before doing testing (ancient stuff, was not sure if it would work). This old rework station does not even have temperature written on it, so I need to experiment with a soldering iron calibrator thermocouple to find reasonable settings.

author: bob91343
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 06:36:07 am
content: The solution is not to clean. Start with a new device and if you want it pretty, wipe clean after every use before the stuff gets too grungy. Otherwise, forget it and worry about more important things.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 07:33:37 am
content: Are those shafts coated with a plating or something?I have a good feeling that the hot air gun is just stainless steel, I know how to finish that to the factory finish (companies like walter give you app notes on how to finish metal to a particular industrial grade, i.e. aluminum and stainless), thats how they get those cool refrigerator doors, hand rails, carts, etc. Usually called a adjective number finish (i.e. #4 stainless brush finish). you follow a specific sequence of abrasives in different forms to get to it, so you can weld up a corner to a hand rail and make it look factory.. I did my kitchen sink this way after 15 years and it looks pretty damn good. Bare metals all have industry standards and tutorial on how to reach them. The hard part is usually sometimes they want linear polishing (like a belt sander) rather then the easy and useful spinning parts people know, because the linear polishing thing is pretty specific and expensive (i.e. proxxon sells a mini one, otherwise you can get a 300$ angle grinder like tool)The problem is usually plating. I am not sure if those things are plated, I can't really tell.Good to know anyway if you want to replace a specific look of something like a 'nice' aluminum front panel on a record player, with the right tools you can totally redo the surface and have it look like it came from the factory, then do the stencil. The tools / abrasives are usually a little expensive but I have a good assortment, usually pays off on the first job (i.e. glue old sink back on). most of the time people get pissed because they do a linear finish, then people try to figure out how to do it with.. circular rotating tools, and it never looks quite right, linear is nice for pushing things through a machine like a 'planer' that leaves a nice finish, but unweidly by hand.. but anywayThe hot air pencil (2nd one down from top in picture) is only bad because I made it glow dull red with the highest settings (i thought it might be a solder extractor, but that tool is only sold as a hot air blower, so I was trying to use it as a solder extractor with the max settings before realizing its just not that kinda tool), but at normal temperatures, it should stay nicely. But the Hakko and the Solder-xt-ractor from pace I am not sure about. That one looked OK after refinishing and I think it would stay good so long it ran on reasonably low temperatures.

author: perieanuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2021, 11:24:31 am
content: Quote from: bob91343 on March 24, 2021, 06:36:07 amsometimes I clean the shaft #meetoo but for this matter, i'll pass to more important stuffunless recover with zinc (don't know the english translation for zinc-covering, the 'warm' type procedure) and reinstate original state