*Useful tip:* The last thing you do before switching off the soldering iron and putting it away is to quickly re-tin the tip with some solder and wipe off the excess. The fresh coating of tin solder will protect the iron in the tip from corrosion until you switch it on for its next use.

Good sir. 7 years later and you're still helping people thank you.

I never knew a new soldering iron wasn't ready out of the box, this explains everything I've been experiencing thankyou for your enlightening video.

I had just bought a new soldering iron and had no idea it needed to be tinned. After alot of frustration and ruining a brand new tip i found your video and now i am way better at soldering then i was before. Thank you very much and i greatly appreciate the effort you put into making this video.

Old school education. The loud music on your channel was perfect. The profanity was absolutely perfect. Meaning Zero. This is the most enjoyable teaching video I’ve watch. Your teaching skills remind me of a man named Doug Nash. My metal shop teacher back in the 70s

You reminding me of my instructors when I was in technical school and university. It's slow, steady and keep repeating in mind for a very long time with attention to details. Some of them already passed away. I always feel the sincerity of people like this passing their knowledge. Thank you.

As I novice I have become really frustrated with my irons. I threw one away because it wasn't accepting solder and my new one is acting the same only after using it a couple of times. This clears up the reason why and hopefully I won't have any more problems. Thanks for the video.

this gentleman was just trying to be helpful by doing this video, though some thought it was to long or to slow, keep your neg comments to yourselves. Thank you sir great video and very informative.

We need more people like you Doing vids like this. Very well done! FIY for the people think its too slow. You can double tap your screen to skip a few secs, or put the speed to 1.25. Not everything you need or want to learn is going to be tailor made for you. Oper your eyes open your mind. And show apprication for good people like this!

I've been soldering for 15 years, most of it under a microscope and have always been Keen about maintaining my equipment and soldering tips. It's crucial to keep a clean soldering tip on your iron if you want a quality shiny connection and your solder to flow properly. I have never thought of using plumber's paste or steel wool, this is a great way to keep your soldering iron maintained and working properly! Thank you very much for this John!

Thanks very much for this video !!! Very good explanation. I am a 63 year old Tool Maker and have never quite gotten the hows and whys of proper electrical soldering down. I'm heading out to the garage to redo a few of my soldering tips right now.

Thanks for this information! I've watched so many videos on how to solder and it looked so easy. But my solder would just bead on the iron and fall right off. None of those videos told me how to tin the tip or that I needed it!

I never knew this had to be done and I only solder every once in a long while but I figured there was something more to it and here it is. Thanks for the time to make this video. Good day Sir

All this time I've been grinding off the solder because I thought it was sloppy and negatively effected the heat transfer. Then I wondered why I couldn't melt the solder anymore when my tip was so clean. Who knew? Thank you for clearing up my confusion.

I saw so many videos but none were as simple and properly explained as this one. Even how he informed in detail about the flux and the soldering wire too. Thank you, teaching is not for everyone and even though KZfaq may seem full of video tutorials, the actual teachers are highly missing on this platform.

This man is skilled! Obviously he's been at this for years... why would someone dislike this video?

Thanks for this clip on "tinning" learned about it in high school but forgot the importance. Good one. thanks again.

Thank you so much sir! Worked like a treat!!!! I have a couple soldering irons that don't solder pretty well, and nobody never taught me how to re-tin the tips as they worn out over time I was thinking about throwing them up to the trash. Now they work as a charm!!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!

I have just watched some videos about soldering electrical wires and I had no idea how to look after the soldering gun. Thanks. Clear, concise and the camera was well focus so we can clearly see step by step the instructions. Products used well explained, too. Very important! Again thanks. I saved your video for future use.

I was gonna pass a comment on the direction in which to wrap the soldering around the iron. Then I realized I know nothing. Thanks man your a life savor.

Son of a gun, now I'm wondering how many fixable soldering tips I've thrown away over the years. ;) Thanks for the cool trick!

Thanks, this helped me a ton. I got a new iron for my birthday, and even though I always cleaned it very carefully, after just a couple uses, it had turned black like your first one, and no solder would stick on it. Heat transfer was terrible as well, and I couldn't get anything to work nicely. I got really discouraged since it was a new iron, and I was disappointed the tips ruined so fast. After searching on how I could clean the tip, I found this video coincidentally, which actually was exactly what I needed to do. I did this with a damp cellulose spunge instead of steel wool, and it turned out perfect. Tip is nice and shiny again, and solder covers it beautifully rather than falling off. I have now learnt to tin the tip every time I put it away, rather than cleaning it of perfectly. Hopefully my tip will last a lot longer now. A good clean tip makes soldering so much more enjoyable.

I salvaged two Radio Shacks soldering irons and tinned a brand new Weller using this video and I don't know anything about soldering. Thanks for the help. I turned right around and soldered a guitar amp cable and a little jumper wire. I thought it was a great video thanks.

I found this video very good because I found three different solder irons in my Dad's garage and none of them worked to melt solder I was trying to remove. My Dad was an electrical engineer so I knew his tools were working but I just didn't know how to use them properly. This video taught me the beginning basics to start with and it was very beneficial to me. Thank you!

Thank you for posting this tutorial on tinning. I found this to be very helpful as I have a thirty-year-old soldering iron that I inherited from a family member. Still works like a charm, but definitely needed to be cleaned up and tinned. Thanks again, and God bless.

I will be going to a technical college and THIS video was VERY helpful! To ensure I would not forget anything I jotted down a few notes for myself. I was neglecting my soldering iron and didn't even know it! Luckily I found your video and will be able to recondition it before I do any more harm to it. Also, luckily the tip on my iron is solid copper, and I will be able to reshape it when the time comes. THANKS for this video!! It answered a lot of questions that I never knew I had!

Thank you so much for this video! I decided to pull out my soldering iron today and clean it off with the steel wool and then re-tin the tip and my soldering iron is good as new! I was a bit skeptical at first but consider me impressed. I am very happy with the outcome.

Great help, thank you. I actually replaced my soldering iron tip (screw in type) and started with a new tip, steel wool from Home Depot and soldering paste from Lowes. Took a little time but turned our very well, thanks to your clear, detailed video. The soldering job was many times improved from previous work I have done...the well-tinned tip being the reason. Great job! Thanks again.

Excellent video! Very thorough and complete. If only I’d seen this video years ago I wouldn’t have thrown away so many salvageable tips. Thank you Sir!

Having only ever soldered on electronics, I had been consistently (and rightly!) shooed away from acid fluxes. Didn't think about using it in this kind of cleaning application though; makes so much sense. Thanks!

Wow! What an excellent video tutorial! Thank you for posting this. I am very impressed that you were able to take that old soldering iron tip, with all that visible corrosion, and turn it into a properly tinned tip. I especially appreciate how you showed, on-screen, each step of that process. Great job! Now I will try to do that with my (sadly) corroded soldering iron tip...

i have a Hakko soldering iron pen. never tinned it but i wipe it off with a foam sponge after every use. it does look shiny silver before i put it to storage. never had problems with it for the past 4 years and heat transfers perfectly after about 10 seconds from turning it on. not saying tinning isn't need. this is good practice i should start doing myself as well. i have destroyed 2 radioshack 25w and 40w irons in the past and about 4 tips in the process.

Very helpful for me. I bought one nice soldering iron earlier but did not thine the tip. It became corroded, I decided to use file to make it sharp and shinny. Three months ago the tip stopped getting hot.I could not find spare tips so I bought 30 watt solder iron last week and yet to use it. Your video is just what I lacked.Thanks so much for the you tube video. I love it and will use your advise for my new soldering iron.

Thanks for sharing. Very helpful video, I never knew I had to tin my tip and wondered why my solder was just dripping off. Used this tip today and what a massive difference its made. So once again thank you you've been a great help.

Hello fella, I’ve had so much frustration trying to tin my soldering irons, spent 10 minutes looking at your tutorial and the tips of my irons are now gleaming Thanks Old son for taking the time. Brad.

Cleaning your tips regularly will make them last a lot longer. Good video thanks.

Thanks for posting this video...I was able to retin my soldering iron tip and finish a project all in one day!

Straight to the point and no nonsense. Excellent instruction. Thank you.

Great video sir. Now I know why I have had so much trouble with my irons, working mostly on RC cars and HO train layouts. Thanks for the info.

I'm glad to have stumbled onto this video... I've always known I should tin, and even tried to with only medium success.... Then again I was working based on the instruction of "cover the tip of the iron with solder" and that's it... Maybe I just never dug hard enough for better instructions.... Sigh... Will have to try the plumbing flux later.... Thanks for spelling it out so clearly.

Sir, thank you so much for putting this up and help my frustration go away! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Very simple applicable workable information to rejuvenate a tip. I viewed quite a few KZfaq videos looking for useful directions and I rate yours the tops. Thanks

Thanks for teaching me some new skills. I really needed to learn this, now I can preserve my tip by tinning it.

Thanks for the video.. It bought back my dead soldering iron to life 👍

You sir, just saved me an epic quest for a new tip for my ancient Weller iron! About five years of crud, slowly reducing the useable area of my tip, was burned away in mere minutes. For our European viewers: I used Griffon S-39 Universal (you specifically need the universal type!) with my Weller and it worked miracles.

Excellent video....thank you very much. Agree w/ replies regarding keeping negative comments to yourselves....just speed up by double tapping,etc. Let's just show our thanks and appreciate his time to pass on his expertise.

Thank you for this wisdom; I wasn't aware that the iron itself NEEDED tinning. Seeing as I'm soon going to be purchasing my first personal iron, I'll put this knowledge to good use!

I did not know that you had to tin a new soldering iron either, so just started with it and very big aggravating mess. Thank you for this video!

Best soldering video on KZfaq. Thanks!

Wow I used to have that iron 30 years ago. Glad to see they are still in use

Very good video thank you so much. Couldn't tin an iron to save my life until I saw this video. Couldn't get it quite tinned as well as the video but I think it'll come with practice. The results were amazing!

I am new at stained glass and ran into your vid, I am going to post your video on a few stained glass instructions. Thank you, thank you!!

I had no idea. Glad I came across this video. Now I can properly maintain my soldering gun and keep it around for a good while.

Very informative and professionally explained.

Wow. It's really hard to find good information. Thanks for the useful information 👍

I'm new to all this. I had no idea you had to tin a brand new tip. Will do that this weekend.

Great help, thanks. All my old irons are solid copper so I cn shape or file them first but just bought a new hobby iron with replaceable tips of different shape. These are coated with a ceramic type coating until the very end where it appears not to be copper and came with a warning do not file or sand. So your tip has been a big help and again thanks a lot. Cobba

Thanks so much; I tried doing everything to get an iron tip tinned but thought it was a goner. However, your 'wrap' method helped me get the initial tinning which then enabled me to tin the rest. Much appreciated.

Exactly the part I have been missing. None of the soldering irons I have bought came pre-tinned, and I have always struggled with getting a clean connection. Going to give this a go and see if it doesn't improve things for me! Thank you!

I believe that we can all keep our tips clean and shiny.

Thank you for the instructions much needed.

I can't say I learned anything new, but it was a great presentation and some, new to electronics, might not know how to do this.

'Cool' stuff man. Thanks for the 'hot tips' ! I never even heard of preparing a solder iron's tip by tinning before use. I only recently thought to get one to connect fan motor wires during servicings at home.

A very useful video. I'm learning to solder and this was invaluable. Clear and concise. Thank you

Thanks for that lesson. Steel wool is what I wasn't using. It does make a difference. Thanks again.

I recommend setting the playback speed to 1.75 or 2. Even then, the video is still easily watchable!

I wish I had seen this video years ago. Just got my old Radio Shack soldering iron in good shape after years of it barely working at all. Thanks

Now my tip is tinned! Thanks to you i have been doing it wrong. The steel wool was the trick.

Great video sir. I appreciate you took your time and showed us all a great way to use this tool and maintain it. Thank you!

Excellent demo and your end result is quite impressive! Thanks for the demo.

Didn't think about using it in this kind of cleaning application though; makes so much sense. Thanks!

I thought I knew how to tin a tip. I knew some, but didn't know more. Thanks for the info.

No wonder i was having so much trouble. Thanks for information.

Managed to tin my soldering iron thanks to your helpful video. Cheers!

well done channel holder and yep there are many guidance on how to manage your soldering irons and always welcome that people share their views and what works for them. +1

very well demonstrated about something that isn't mentioned much --thanks

The MOST important way to prolong bit life (and keep it usable) is reducing overheating. Modern temperature controlled irons have a REAL advantage here. When it goes into the holder, a motion sensor reduces the temperature to ~200C. On later removing it, the electronics quickly returns the tip to the previous value, and it's ready to go again.

very helpful, i have been soldering for years and have never prepared a tip. Thanks for the info

Great tips (pun intended)! This explains a lot if soldering issues can be resolved with this simple process. Thanks!

Excellent and thorough video! Thanks very much; cleared up a lot for me.

Awesome tutorial on preparing and maintaining a soldering iron tip! Thanks for posting!

Oh thank you! My soldering tip would not clean up and I couldn’t get it tinned. Got the steel wool and the paste at the hardware store and am going to do exactly what you said. I will let you know how it goes!

Thanks again. I bought a new Weller iron and tinning was wayyy easier than my old Weller SP23L which was dying. Tinning that old junkie was hard and the tip turned black. Thank you!!!!!!!!!! You get one more sub and like :)

A helpful and informative video, thanks! To future viewer's- open your settings, go to "playback speed", choose the x1.25 setting. Amazing, huh? Sounds as if he has a whole new outlook onl Life.

I wish i saw this video before..i have done many mistake I wouldnt throw out the soldering iron, believing it was ruined Thank you very much

Thanks for making this video. My soldering iron tips really needed this!

Thank you! Went from a horrible soldering job to a pretty damn good one.

EXCELLENT WELL DONE! PLEASANT VOICE & MANNER OF SPEAKING.

That was very helpful. My tip was getting a tinned only at the very end but I know what to do now. Thank you

Good video, I thrifted a Weller a while back, tip obviously was neglected

Wish I would had had this instructions when I started to use my hand held solder machine thank you for the tip very informative

Good job! One of the best videos I have seen on the subject; and I used to teach electronics many years ago before everything chsnged to plug-in so the students wouldn't burn themselves or others.....

nice job thanks for the demo learned something new today

Thank you for the tinning tip, as i just got a project to do some soldering for a commercial endeavor.

Thanks for some great advice to tinning. As a soldering novice, I didn't realize this. Appreciate your tips. Ahem.

THANKS SO MUCH! also, I'm always speeding up videos to get thru them but I had no issues with this guys video @ normal speed.What is everyones problem?

No annoying music, straight forward video, no sales pitch, ro bs ing around . What's not to like.

Perfect! I've been wondering how to recondition a tip that just won't hold any solder when I try to re-tin it, much like that second tip in your video. Going to snag some acid flux paste and give this a whirl before I get back to the bench!

Thank you so much. This was very helpful and very enlightening.

Thank you very much for this information, it answed a lot of questions.