🚀 go-pugleaf

aren't tin cans nickel plated? what about old keys? surely there are some
good sources of nickel for plating out there???????????????????


"N. Thornton" <bigcat@meeow.co.uk> wrote in message
news:a7076635.0210281346.5bcd7bbc@posting.google.com...
> henk@access1.net (bogax) wrote in message
news:<811bdbb6.0210261339.46e72904@posting.google.com>...
> > OK, I know I'm late.
> >
> > (came across this while looking for John Popelish' original description
> > of his technique for etching PCBs by floating on FeCl, to refer a friend
> > to.  Thanks John :)
> >
> > I have made my own soldering iron tips or refurbished those
paramagneticaly
> > heat controlled Weller tips (which seem to me to be getting harder and
harder
> > to find)
> >
> > I always used nickel plating over the copper.
> >
> > A little nickel chloride in hydrochloric acid for plating solution,
> > and a lab supply with the current limit set for a 100-200ma
> >
> > Caveat:
> > I believe nickel chloride is rather hideously poisonous.
> > http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/NI/nickel_II_chloride.html
> >
> > And by the by, it's easy enough to remove the little bit of paramagnetic
> > alloy (or what ever it's called) from those Weller tips and attach it to
> > a similar tip that doesn't have it (but is probably easier to find)
> >
> > >ozi wrote:
> > >>
> > >> G'day,
> > >> I have a lathe an all different types of metal and was considering
the
> > >> possibility of making my own 'custom' soldering iron tips. Can anyone
> > >> tell me if they're made of a special type of metal or if they're
plated
> > >> with anything.
> > >> I was going to use stainless steel.
> > >>
> > >I think you will have trouble getting the solder to wet stainless
> > >(which is stainless because it coats itself with a protective oxide
> > >layer), though if you use a very active acid flux, you might get it
> > >coated. But never use acid flux for electronic soldering after the tip
> > >is tinned.  It is strictly for plumbing use.
> > >
> > >Cheap bits are pure copper, or high copper alloys, but copper wets
> > >with solder so well because it dissolves in it.  Pure iron (low alloy)
> > >is only very slightly soluble in solder, so it is consumed many times
> > >slower than copper, but is a poorer conductor of heat (and stainless
> > >is worse than iron).  So the best bits are pure copper inside, for
> > >heat transfer, with a pure iron plating for long life.  Remember that
> > >any iron surface that is to be wet with solder must be fluxed before
> > >heating and tinned immediately upon heating to get it covered with a
> > >protective layer of solder before it oxidizes or solder will roll off
> > >it like water off a duck.
> > >
> > >--
> > >John Popelish
> >
> >
> > Bogax
>
> I saw some soldering irons once that used a 4" nail with its head cut
> off as the bit. They seemed to work OK, but the bit wasn't removable.
> A novel approach :)
>
> Iron plated copper is the norm, with plain copper for the cheapo ones.
>
> Regards, NT