gofar99 Messages: 1949 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, I would like to add a couple of suggestions as well. Instead of using a cloth, use a piece a few inches square of a "natural" sponge. Do not use the synthetic ones as they melt. A better alternative and will last forever is get one of the bronze pads designed for cleaning the tips. They look like copper brillo pads or pot scrubbers. On sale they run under $5 from places like Parts Express and MCM. When it gets full of junk, just shake it out over the trash and you are back in business. You can put the thing in something like a small cat food can and screw it down on a small piece of wood to make it stable. If your soldering iron doesn't have a "rest" you can make one from coat hanger wire and attach it also to the same board. In the photo the one in the foreground shows the "pad" the thing behind it is a vacuum desoldering iron and it has one of the sponge pads. Please excuse the junk in sight, I'm in the middle of several projects and could only push it so far to the side.