Cool Idea

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: Cool Idea
• From: gweaver <gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
• Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 20:00:47 -0700
• Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
• Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

For 30 years I have used a soldering gun and the tip always get covered with
black stuff that needs to be wiped off with a rag or brushed off with a wire
brush.  After soldering for a while the solder that clings to the soldering
gun tip gets dark looking and it won't stick to anything.  The tip can be
cleaned and retinned by melting several inches of solder on the tip.  This
wastes solder and makes a mess.

I had an idea and decided to see what would happen.  I have a container of
rosin that I bought at the plumbing store.  I stuck the hot top of the
soldering gun into the rosin and pulled it back out.  "WOW, I like that."
The rosin melted and washed away all the black stuff on the tip and the tip
lookes like new again. It took only 1 second to dip the tip in the rosin and
clean it.  It looks like it was retinned with new solder too.

The plumbing rosin comes in a metal container 2.5" diameter 3/4" tall with a
metal snap on top.  Rosin looks like grease.  It costs about $2.00.  Now I
leave the rosin on top of the work bench all the time. Today while working
on another TC project I dipped the soldering gun tip in the rosin to clean
it and thats when I thought about the TC list.  I thought maybe everyone on
the TC list would be interested in this.  Try it.....it works great.

Gary Weaver
 

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