How To Fix a Soldering Iron Tip Thats Not Melting Solder Wire

A soldering iron is widely used in the electronics industry to melt soldering wire to create permanent solder joints onto printed circuit boards. After continuous use, the soldering iron tip will contain oxidation and corrosion from the flux created from burning solder wire. If that happens, it can cause the solder wire not to melt onto the tip, making the soldering iron none functional. This is because it prevents the heat created by the heating element to reach down to the very bottom of the tip. This problem can be fixed by cleaning the soldering iron tip, this will remove all of the current oxidation and corrosion on it. So don't throw your old trusty soldering iron away just yet!

1) To begin with the maintenance, switch off the 'Wall Socket' to turn off the soldering iron. Leave it for '5' minutes to allow the soldering iron to cool down. You can check if the soldering is cooled down by attempting to melt solder wire onto the middle section of the metal housing that the tip goes into. If the solder wire doesn't melt, it is cooled down and its safe for you to now clean the tip.

2) You want to make sure that the metal tip is firmly inserted into the heating element because if its loose, then it won't get proper heat conduction from the heating element and it will not get hot enough. So get a 'Philips' head screwdriver and using it, tighten the screw found near the metal tip.

3) Now you will need to clean the metal tip. So obtain a rough 'Steel Wool Wire Brush' or some 'Sandpaper', both can be bought from hardware stores for dirt cheap. Then place it onto the metal tip, then using it rapidly scrub in circular motions until the discoloration is removed and the silvery metal color is restored.