On 5/4/2022 8:26 PM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On 5/4/22 21:08, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Since it removes solder, it's likely it will accumulate loose solder splatter. That's likely why it's contained in a bowl or holder, to capture the material.
I can confirm this. Unless your soldering technique puts so much solder on the tip that dragging it against the brass "ribbon" create a joint enveloping two or more strands, the solder will cool, form a small round blob, and drop through the ribbon to the bottom after a while. Cleaning the ribbon means taking it out of the bowl/tray, dumping the tray, and then massaging the ribbon over a trash can to remove any solder still managed to be inside the ribbon. I'm a huge fan, and it's easier to teach newer soldering students (jab and go, so to speak). Though my Weller (which I take with me to shows, since it's more portable than any of my other units and less horrid if I lose it/it gets stolen) uses a sponge, I just strapped a brass ribbon onto the unit and use that.
In my industrial training in soldering, which admittedly was decades ago, we were told to use wet sponges. But I'd already been soldering for many years before that...using wet sponges with good results. I don't think the wet sponge method is bad, so feel free to keep using it. The brass method is just a bit simpler, and maybe a bit faster (though someone who's used sponge for decades is arguably faster yet). As I noted prior, jabbing into the middle of the ribbon cleans all tip surface in one go, with no need to rotate or otherwise make additional passes (equivalent to a sponge with deep cuts that you can bury the tip into, but some irons don't have deep enough cuts for that.)
I guess I wouldn't get on the "it's better" wagon, but I would defend it as not worse than wet sponge, and it handles my forgetting to wet the sponge workflow better. Jim -- RETRO Innovations, Contemporary Gear for Classic Systems www.go4retro.com store.go4retro.com