What can I expect to happen after filing the tip to my soldering iron? I come from a Ma Bell background where we filed and retinned our irons all the time. I did this with my Weller and was told after the fact that I shouldn't have done that. Thanks in advance.
If I remember, those old tips were made of copper or something like that and needed occasional filing. the new irons are (silver?) coated iron and should never require filing. If you file the silver off, there's only the iron core left, and solder won't flow on iron. You may have ruined your tip. If it still works ok, then great, but if not, there's no fixing it. Replacement tips are made for just about every mid to upper price model so talk to your supplier about getting a new one. If it was a cheap iron there may be no replacement tip on the market. See if you can actually get the tip out of the iron. You could make your own tip. Get a rod of copper, file it to a chisel tip and youve got an iron just like what you thought you had. The tip will require maintainance though.
Liam
You can expect to trash that tip, buy a replacement, and learn from the experience to not do that again.
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