Soldering iron tips?
 

hey guys
ive been racing for about a year and and have been thru about 3 tips for my iron mind u i use deans connectors so i use it to build packs and wire up motor so that like once every 4 months yet my tips are chunking away the chisel tip has dissapeared and i cant figure out what im doing wrong?
i use a 80 watt iron so its nice and hot and rosin/resin core solder and tin but i have been told not to use flux yet my dad swears by it so should i use liquid flux? or just rosin core solder?
any tips on prolonging tip life??
thanks all

Do you keep the tip clean? Also, try this. Swab some flux on the tip, then wrap the tip in solder. Turn it on and let all the solder melt onto the tip. Be careful though, it will drip. This will help fix the tip a little. Make sure you keep the tip clean though. Also, what iron do you have? If you leave your iron on for long periods of time, the tip will wear out. Keep solder on it.

thanks man
any other suggestions??
i was gonna buy adjustable iron but whats the point if all im doing is burning thru tips?

My guess is your soldering iron is one which just has a mains lead on it and doesn't plug into a little box which allows you to adjust the temperature. If so the thing that is killing your tip is too much heat. You probably need to keep tinning the tip right, and if you dont the tip oxidises and goes all black and dirty.

I had a cheap one that did this, it wasn't designed right or something and just ran too hot, I found that turning the power off every few minutes or so helped. Too anoying so I ended up buying a Weller Iron, again a non adjustable one, but a much better design- they have a mechanical temperature control- a contact pulls in when the temperature drops and lets go when the temperature gets too high, I don't understand how it works but it does. They take a special tip.

By the way it isnt higher than usual temperature you need when soldering battery cells as most soldering irons run at about the same temperature. What you need is high wattage so the iron can deliver the heat faster than the battery bar can take it away. My weller is 60W, its great for Deans but I find it right on the lower limit for soldering cells.

You're right to use an 80 Watt iron for soldering cells but probably need to update to a better one.