What is Reddit's opinion of Aoyue Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner with Brass wire sponge, no water needed (TY-98)?

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Good basic guide. I would add that most people get flux cored solder, so they don't need to work about fluxing before solder.

Second thing is, if you're going to do more than one keyboard's worth of soldering, I'd suggest ditching the sponge and getting a brass / copper wire tip cleaner.. It's not super great for the tip to be put on a wet sponge.

30 W is definitely hot enough. I have a switchable 15/30w and the 20 will cook sensitive components.

Once its hot check the tip with pliers to ensure it's screwed in snug. Cleaning with a sponge will work. If it's all crusty and black it won't transfer heat correctly. But I prefer to use copper mesh. Something like THIS

But I just use copper Chore Boy stuffed in a small sample size jelly jar.

$3 is peanuts, but I suppose that it's pricey when the iron itself is only $15. Good ETx tips for the Weller WES51 or WES51D are $4-7, but the stations are around $100.

As the others are saying here, take care of your tips, and they'll take care of you too. Also, use a brass sponge for cleaning off your tip, rather than a wet regular sponge.

Oh man, something I can finally contribute to on this sub, I do electronics repair and a ton of microsoldering. Sorry to hijack but I'm here way too late and a main level comment will never be seen

Solder naturally wants to stick to copper (the circular "pads" are copper or some copper alloy, and the legs should have some amount of copper in it as well) when it's liquid, so getting a 'volcano' is a lot easier than you'd think. The trick is to keep the pad, pin, and solder you're feeding in hot, as soon as it starts to solidify it becomes significantly more work to re-heat and rework. If it's not perfect, I wouldn't worry about it. As long as it's making solid contact and wouldn't come loose from you tapping the key, you're good to go. Excess solder is perfectly fine as long as it's not bridging.

Another thing on solder, GET LEAD SOLDER, lead free solder is a giant pain in the ass. It doesn't melt easily, clumps and balls up, and will not heat up evenly. Also have proper ventilation, solder/flux fumes are not good.

Another possible reason for having problems is your soldering iron tip being dirty/oxidized. If it's looking black or really dull you need to clean it in a wire sponge like this. Stick the tip in and furiously move it around. If it's still dull after that/you've used the same tip for a long time, you need to tin it with a tinner, like this (lead free is totally fine for this, just dip it in while it's hot for 1-3s and clean it in the wire sponge immediately after. Smoke is normal (don't breathe it in) and it'll come out real freaking shiny.

Flux is basically a liquid-gel-ish substance that covers whatever you're working on so it doesn't oxidize and make a bad connection, although for larger scale soldering like keyboards with a ton of contact area it's not nearly as much a concern. Flux also helps a lot with more even heat distribution, as in if you need to rework/remove solder just apply a ton of flux and it'll help heat up the solder more evenly/liquefy it more quickly.

Flux is non-conductive so you don't have to worry about it bridging anything, and you can leave it on if you want to but it's always good to clean it with 99% alcohol after because it gets dry and nasty pretty quick (about the same texture and consistency as dried jizz, pretty undesirable).

Wick is a copper weave that soaks up solder when you're trying to remove it. If you, for example, bridge a connection, you would apply flux over the whole area, put the wick directly over the spot, and your iron directly on top of that. You'll be able to see the solder flow 'upwards' through the weave and the copper will turn silver.

The finer the "weave" of the wick the more effective it is, finer also means more flexible so you can tell really easily. Once a section is silvery with solder you should cut it off and unroll some fresh wick. Also copper conducts heat really well so hold it far away from the place where your iron is touching it or use heat proof gloves if you want to (not rubber/latex ones, they'll probably melt into your skin or something).

P.S. If you're having a lot of trouble removing the factory solder, that's probably because it's lead free solder. Add some leaded solder and melt it in, everything will come out easier. If you're REALLY having issues after a ton of flux, use a heat gun, be careful to not melt the plastics on the other side, although the PCB usually isolates heat pretty well

P.P.S. Don't ever heat anything for too long, if it's not coming off check the temp on your iron (you can just see how melty it is, don't need a thermometer or anything), and if it's at a good temp try adding flux or solder or both, or get a better wick. If a pad comes off the board you're fucked unless you wanna spend an hour jumping.

P.P.P.S. If you have the option, go for a blade-style soldering tip. It's really good for rougher applications like this and heats things up super fast.

ama if anyone still cares

Haha Sorry! Its this thing - https://www.amazon.ca/Aoyue-Soldering-Cleaner-Sponge-Needed/dp/B005C789EU/ref=asc_df_B005C789EU/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=292953024923&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6488421255784275785&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9000183&hvtargid=pla-451646005908&psc=1
They are amazing when soldering. When you iron gets all gunky, the copper cleans it off without hurting the iron at all. Definitely would recommend!

Get a brass shavings cleaner. I don't like the wet sponge method https://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-Soldering-Cleaner-sponge-needed/dp/B005C789EU

> my tip always gets this black stuff

Something like this should help. Make sure it's actually made of brass. Some cheap ones I've had have melted in the past.

It looks like a brass sponge for cleaning a soldering iron tip.

Have you ever used one of these?

http://www.amazon.com/Aoyue-Soldering-Cleaner-sponge-needed/dp/B005C789EU

It's way better for cleaning tips. Also if it's ok to scrub a tip with brass wool, then dipping it in flux won't do any harm...