On a sunny day (Mon, 25 Jun 2018 21:12:22 +0100) it happened Rob Morley
 wrote in :

>On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 15:59:13 GMT
>Jan Panteltje  wrote:
>
>> One thing, NEVER use a wet sponge to clean plated tips, it kills
>> those, always wipe it clean with some paper napkin.
>
>Not on your jeans?   :-)

Removing solder from your jeans is easy,
Cotton is OK, it is harder from nylon or polyester based stuff :-)


>> That way, at least for me, the tips last forever.
>> The wet sponge thing is a trick to sell tips.
>>
>I thought it was just appropriate for unplated copper tips.

 http://panteltje.com/pub/soldering_tips.jpg
The short ones are Weller, the long ones are from the LS50.
on the Weller tips you can see the metal piece that loses its magnetic
properties
connected to it at the right side.

The top one is Weller, used a lot with a wet sponge,
tip will erode away just above the plating.
Then an other bigger Weller, not much used,
and one up from bottom a Weller cleaned with paper towel.

The bottom one is the size I normally use (SMDs etc),
and now 13 years later even looks better:
 http://panteltje.com/pub/soldering_iron_tips_IMG_6436.JPG
From left to right:
Weller number 7, Weller number 7, Weller number 7, LS50 tips.
Those numbers, engraved on the tips, indicate the temperature,
number 7 is 370 C.

I usually, with the LS50, work at much lower temperatures,
with 60/40 solder at 270 or 320C, 375C burns the insulation of magnet wire.


In a very big US company I worked someone in the production department cleaned
the tips by rubbing on:
 a big blob of solder!
That is where I came up with the idea of a using paper towel for cleaning.
Fold it a couple of times, no worry, it does not even catch fire at 370C,
neither does it burn your fingers, just leaves some black stripes on the paper
from the accumulated crap on the tips.

Soldering irons is a bit like religions, everybody has their own and is always
right.
So for what it is worth :-)

When soldering on the Pi (If you MUST, you should not have to) beware of static
discharge, do not use
one of those directly mains powered irons etc.
And do not use a soldering gun, somebody enthusiastically told me, hey I bough
a soldering gun,
now I can do...
No you cannot.
:-)

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