@witschey Here are some amazon links to products I use.
Tip tinner LINK
Liquid flux LINK
Squeeze bottle & hollow tip LINK
Ultra thin solder for fine work LINK
Solder for heavier connections LINK
Here are some of the tips I ordered, I think the D16 is my normal tip LINK
Those tips fit this iron LINK
The two tips here are the special tips for dragging, with correct liquid solder and heat it does a very nest job LINK
I rarely use it now, but this is what solder paste looks like, consistency of peanut butter LINK
If you get into surface mount or just want to know more about soldering, then look up the website of LINK
His website is a mess, but that is where I learned what soldering station and hot air station to get. I also ordered the flux, solder in flux, and paste all in injectors that are NOT counterfeit from him.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
My personal scorecard is now 1 PC hardware fix (circa 1982), 1 open source fix (at age 82), and 2 zero day bugs in a major OS.
@zander Hi Ron,
Yes when I refer to my tip having gone bad (or being dead) I mean that it’s useless in the sense that solder won’t melt anymore and it won’t adhere to the tip as it normally does.
According to the station display it is reaching the right temperature of 375C, but when I touch the rosin filled solder it doesn’t turn into a nice melted bubble of solder it causes the solder to break into a piece that falls to the table (in non melted form).
@witschey I have had the occasional piece break off like that, but I don't know what causes it. I just feed in more solder and it works normally.
Hopefully the info I have given you helps.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
My personal scorecard is now 1 PC hardware fix (circa 1982), 1 open source fix (at age 82), and 2 zero day bugs in a major OS.