T&L Publications

Hi all.
Used the trick repeatedly since a while ago, with corroded/dirty soldering iron tips, left on inadvertently for too long.
Hot melt glue cleans them quite well
Have tried a few 'brands' of the glue sticks, only one did not behave. The finding surfaced by misplacing my glue gun and used an old soldering iron when in need to melt such.

Am not saying that is the correct way to clean a corroded tip, just reporting the curiosity
Miguel

While I believe it can remove carbonization and probably a scale of oxidized metal and maybe even solder residue, it naturally will not replace any lost plating or correct for pitted tip. It may be better than scraping or sanding the tip if there is some of the original plating left to preserve. Solid copper tips almost always clean up but most tips have plating to enhance and localize the whetting, especially powered tips.

My tool box is miles away from here right now so I can't lay my hands on it, but I believe it's Multicore that makes a product just for what you need. It comes in a small, quarter-sized tin and is essentially powered solder and flux in a hard paste. You dip your hot iron tip into it and it comes out clean and tinned. Fantastic stuff.

If it's a solid-copper tip, there's nothing like a flat mill file to take care of things. If it's iron plated, never take a file or other abrasive to it. If you put a void in that iron plating, the tip will disintegrate even faster than if it were a solid-copper tip.