Soldering iron tip

What can I expect to happen after filing the tip to my soldering iron?
I come from a Ma Bell background where we filed and retinned our
irons all the time. I did this with my Weller and was told after the
fact that I shouldn't have done that. Thanks in advance.

If I remember, those old tips were made of copper or something like that and
needed occasional filing. the new irons are (silver?) coated iron and
should never require filing. If you file the silver off, there's only the
iron core left, and solder won't flow on iron. You may have ruined your
tip. If it still works ok, then great, but if not, there's no fixing it.
Replacement tips are made for just about every mid to upper price model so
talk to your supplier about getting a new one. If it was a cheap iron there
may be no replacement tip on the market. See if you can actually get the
tip out of the iron. You could make your own tip. Get a rod of copper,
file it to a chisel tip and youve got an iron just like what you thought you
had. The tip will require maintainance though.

Liam

"Craig" wrote in message
om...
What can I expect to happen after filing the tip to my soldering iron?
I come from a Ma Bell background where we filed and retinned our
irons all the time. I did this with my Weller and was told after the
fact that I shouldn't have done that. Thanks in advance.

You can expect to trash that tip, buy a replacement, and learn from
the experience to not do that again.