What is the best tips to use while soldering? [closed]

Question

Is a silver tip better to use rather than a copper tip?

Answer 1

There is no reason to get a silver tip.

Get yourself a good standard tip that has been primed with the proper coating, such as tips from the major brands (that usually only fit the major brands of soldering gear well, tbh). My Weller tips last me years, especially if you have a small € 5,- can of activator to re-activate the tip once in a while when it doesn't have the solder stick well enough any more.

Fun fact for all you tip-material-geeks: Some very cheap cast iron tips or similar can actually be activated to work for a couple weeks with Cooper Tools / Weller tip activator. Tried it for a friend once, who had a €7,- plug in iron that had no wetting action. Because the tip was garbage. After activator it worked for a couple of weeks. I do not doubt other brands will work too, but I got stuck to this brand in the 90's :-)

The causation for silver tips is/was maybe a bit of lore around the whopping 2% higher thermal conductivity, but probably the higher inertness of silver compared to copper, but first of all: Most major brands don't use pure copper any more and second of all they are coated to protect. So as long as you don't bend or actively scratch cheaper tips you will probably not notice the difference. And if you do, in 6 to 12 months it will corrode away and you spend €4 on a new tip, rather than having a €50 tip for the 3 to 5 years you'll be happy with this model of soldering iron.

Answer 2

Silver has slightly better thermal conductivity than copper. So on those terms alone it would be better, but only marginally so.

I don't know about other things like lifespan of the tip, etc.

A bit of googling found a 1924 Popular Science article praising such a silver tip.

Whether it's worth the significantly higher cost is a different matter though.

There is one other issue to consider: whether a silver tip will have good wetting action with the solder normally used in electronics. Wetting action increases the surface area used for thermal contact between the tip and target material[s]. I don't do silver brazing (or use silver wires), so I'm not entirely sure about this, but a bit of searching suggests that the alloys used to optimally solder silver are different than for copper. So wetting action of a silver tip with tin-based solder might not be so good, possibly negating the slight advantage silver has in thermal conductivity through the tip alone.

Answer 3

Have you seen this video ? If anyone, Dave knows what he's talking about.

Soldering isn't only about what tip you use but many other things as well. You can use the most fancy-schmancy silver tip ever but if you set the temperature incorrectly or use the wrong solder, it's a waste of money.

As far as I know for general soldering no-one uses silver tips. A copper tip is good enough but you need to use it properly and maintain it so that it will last a long time. An oxidized tip will not be able to transfer the heat properly so you need to keep your tip in good shape.

In paractice the heat conductivity of copper is sufficient and I don't see why silver would improve on that. What is important is thermal capacity, a small tip cannot transfer as much heat in a given time compared to a larger tip. So choose the right tip for the job !

Answer 4

Most modern soldering tips are plated with Iron over the entire area of the tip, with another material plated on top of the Iron at the front part of the tip where the solder is melted.

The Iron prevents the copper from oxidizing and corroding, while the additional plating layer used for soldering presents a surface that wets well with solder. These plating materials allow the tip to have a MUCH longer lifetime than an unplated copper tip.

The combination of these plating materials will give the tip a silver appearance, especially in the area of the tip where the solder melts.

Both Weller and Metcal have great descriptions of the plating materials used on their tips.

Answer 5

Just buy a tip from a good brand and you will be good to go. You really do not need to worry about the coating or metal. One important thing would be to have a welding tip cleaner (steel wire ball) ready at hand so that the oxide can be removed when needed.

As a bonus I have pointed out some general good advice below:

• Soldering station

• Soldering tip (one small and one big)

• Soldering wire (60/40 Rosin Core). According to me, the diameter does not matter much. If soldering tiny SMD parts the flux will keep the solder from bridging over pins and will dispense the solder evenly.

• Rosin/Resin flux (gel)

• A high quality soldering wick (a pump could be handy as well if large amount of solder should be removed)

Keep the soldering iron at the temperature you need to be at, given the situation at hand. I usually have mine at approx. 350C and that works fine most of the time for smd work. Don't be shy when it comes to crank up the temperature if needed.

This does not cost much and you will solder like a god.

Answer 6

The best tip I have ever used, was made of copper-silver alloy (I don't know the ratio). It never got corroded or wasted for a long time, and it was always clean and wetted.

Answer 7

Silver has more thermal conductivity than Copper. And even Silver is at the bottom of the reactivity chart. And life span of Silver tip is certainly better. Therefore Silver is better.

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