some help for my soldering tip?

what type of iron is it? most have replacement tips for a couple bucks. Are you periodically wiping the tip on a damp sponge or a sal ammoniac block? That will alleviate getting the gunk in the solder bead. m

It's a Mika which is not as common as Inland but I like it OK. My Inland died last year. The working end of the chisel tip is fine, I use a wet sponge and Sal Ammoniac. The problem is father up. The rust is getting bad, maybe from being in the basement. Bits of rust all over the sponge. I guess I can try lightly sanding it.

I use a Mika (456) also, your gonna love this.... I dunk my iron in the liquid flux to clean it, and that gunk, after your iron is hot, grab that "barrel" part up above the clad part of the tip and give it a twist, all that "oxidation" will come off. Have a few replacement tips around for when the metal ( copper) gets too thin and you can change the tips. After getting the crud off, dunk it in the flux to clean it to the metal and then keep soldering. That gunk can't flow into your flux if you only add solder down near the tip and not up so high above the cladding. Their tips seem to wear fast but I like the irons, light weight and big fat ceramic compared top the instaheats.

Don't even know my own equipment, my apologies... I have a Hakko iron 456 with the larger ceramic and the clad tip by which I knock off the crud, hope nobody screwed up an iron tip on account of what I said, but then again, maybe it works!!

Sounds like a good idea, I have a brass brush. Thanks,

What are you grabbing the hot barrel with?

I was lucky the other day, during edge soldering a glob of solder fell into my sweatshirt sleeve. I just looked at my wrist and thought "well, I'm not yelling d&%M or jumping up and down, what's up" The solder had landed on the side of my plastic watch band and stuck. I only had a tiny little burn and it didn't hurt the watch.

Pliers! I be tough, but not THAT tough! no bare hands. the teeth of the pliers do the same thing as a file, just quicker.

You should see how fast a welder can get his boot off when a glob of white hot slag drops down it.

yeah, or when you step in a spot of hot glass and it sears the sole of your boot. talk about a hot foot dance!

I wear shoes I can kick off quickly for this very reason! Yesterday a chunk of hot glass popped off and went into my shoe, and that sucker was on the floor in a fraction of a second, no damage done. For all the times I've had hot glass fall on/fly at me, I'm remarkably lucky (knock on wood) to have only ever suffered small burns around the hands and wrists.