Soldering iron tip grinding

Question

I have an ordinary Weller soldering iron with a conical tip, which I fear does not transfer much heat to the area. Since I am planning to do a dead bug project I thought it would be better to get a flat on the tip of the iron, possibly by grinding it so it looks like this:

However, I am told that this will not work because the tip is not actually solid, but is plated, and if I grind it, then the plating will get ground off. Is this true?

Can I just buy an alternative tip and then install it somehow on the iron, or do I need a special kind of iron that supports interchangeable tips. The type of station I have is an older analog station which is one piece with the holder and sponge on top and a strip of LED lights that indicate the temperature.

UPDATE

My Weller is an S4240. On examining it closer, it has a knurl and screw on sleeve. When this is unscrewed the tip slides out and apparently can be replaced.

Answer 1

DON'T grind your soldering tips. It will ruin them. Good quality tips are made from copper with a thin layer of iron or another metal on top. The copper conducts the heat, and the other metal prevents the copper from corroding. You can buy new tips of any size and shape you want. They are pretty cheap. There is usually a tiny screw on the side of the soldering iron near the hot end that lets you change the tip.

Here's a cross-section of what's inside good tips (image by Hakko)

Answer 2

Do not grind your tip. Tips are usually made of copper with iron plating. The copper transfers the heat well but would get eroded away too quickly by the solder. So what to do?

First, a plain conical tip isn't such a bad thing. That's what I mostly use for all kinds of soldering. Dead bug soldering usually requires less heating power, since there isn't a copper trace acting like a heat sink attached to the pin. A plain conical tip should work fine. Try it.

Second, many soldering irons have interchangeable tips. You only said you have a Weller, but not what model. Weller makes a lot of different soldering irons. Some good ones which definitely have interchangeable tips, like the popular WES51. They also make low end soldering stations aimed at people that don't know much about solder and buy on price. Some of those may not have interchangeable tips. The kind of people that buy a $40 soldering station because it costs less than the $45 soldering station don't think about changing tips when they buy, so the soldering station is designed for lowest possible initial price, even if maintainance costs more in the long run.

You get what you pay for.

Answer 3

I agree with the other answers that you shouldn't grind a tip that is still in good condition.

However, if you ever happen to have poor quality tips or tips that have weared out, you can use a file to reshape them. The downside is that as the copper corrodes, you'll usually have to repeat this every 5-10 times you use it. Eventually the tip will have been filed so short that it is no longer usable.

I do this to get big flat tips, which I only need rarely to solder bigger components.

Answer 4

Yes solder tips are not solid, they are just plated. So you do not want to grind it down. That will remove the plating and then solder will no longer stick to the tip rendering it useless. However, most soldering irons have replaceable/exchangable tips, and they do make a chisel or flat tips you can purchase here. I don't think you will have any issues finding tip that is exactly what you are looking for.

Answer 5

Balderdash! I reshape tips at our school annually (if not sooner), a light filing and some 120 grit sand paper get them ready to accept the new tip tinning and they need to be reshaped precisely because of the pitting and breakdown of the steel coating. All but a few of my solder stations are 60 watt, no issues. Perhaps the problem is the tip tinner people use, I'm pretty sure mine is NOT ROHS compliant ....so it's the "good stuff", alternately we used to use a light coat of Kester solder paste, their ultra fine particulate size and excellent flux formulas can do the trick in a pinch if a tin pot isn't around. If you are buying tips for $5 per 5 pack, then I suppose just spend away, it's not my money, but you truly don't need to fear a light polish or modest reshape. Notice I am not advocating a belt sander or a tool grinder, you shouldn't be sanding soft metals on those anyway as they can load up the belt grit or pores on a grinding wheel. A file and 120 paper are all you need. Though I should also specify these are conical tips not solder gun "y" tips or other odd sizes. This penchant for throwing things away prematurely like tossing a 95%++ of an intact rod of essentially solid copper is borderline irresponsible in the 21st century. Half the EE's I used to work with would get this concept, the other half spent money like water going over Victoria falls. My point is that telling people not to reshape and tin and if they do they are somehow deficient or foolish is just plain wrong, or at least disproven often enough by actual success that this post needed to be written.