Equipment Maintenance - Soldering Iron Edition

Recently, I think that the tip of the soldering iron has been slow to warm up when I go to use it for repairs.
And so, I got some replacement parts and performed maintenance on this soldering iron, so I would like to show you how I did it.

By the way, the soldering iron used is the HAKKO PRESTO No. 984
Normally, it heats at 20W, but it has a switch on the hand that heats up to 130W when pressed, so this soldering iron is easy to use when you need a short start-up time or a lot of heat.
I have been using the same model for more than 15 years and this is my third one.

Condition check before going into maintenance.
I have gotten quite a lot of use out of it. If you look closely, you will notice that the tip is slightly bent.
I was using it normally without thinking too much about it, but it was starting to cause me stress when I was doing more detailed work.

I turned the screw at the base and removed the tip to disassemble it...

The protective pipe and the tip should be separated, but they are stuck together, and the metal is stuck to the ceramic on the body side.
I checked and found that this is a rare issue. I proceeded to disassemble it, thinking that it must be due to the fact that it had not been maintained for a long time.

After removing the metal stuck to the ceramic, carbonized powder came out from the gap.
Although it’s too fine to be seen in the photo, the carbonized powder was thought to have reduced the thermal conductivity of the ceramic.
The area around the ceramic and the crevices were carefully cleaned with a brush to remove the carbonized powder and dirt.
I was planning to replace only the soldering tip, but since I couldn’t remove it from the protection pipe, I decided to replace the protection pipe as well.

There are many types of soldering iron tips, but this time I chose the part number 980-T-BI, which is the one I’m currently using. The tip is shaped like the tip of a pencil and is called a B-type tip.
The protective pipe is No. B2564 that’s a genuine PRESTO product.

I’m replacing it immediately.
It looks so clean that it looks almost new. Now it’s practically new.

As for the feeling, the start-up time is faster than before. I guessed that the heat conductivity had decreased due to the dirt inside.
I tried to melt the solder on the board to test it and it took less time than before. I can do the work without overheating, so I can reduce damage to the board.

By the way, maintaining a soldering iron can be as simple as disassembling it and cleaning the inside. As it was in this case, carbonized dust may be clogging the inside of the soldering iron, so light maintenance once a month will extend the life of the soldering iron and it will not reduce the efficiency of your work. Also, since the tip oxidizes and deteriorates due to heat, soldering the tip when not in use will prevent the formation of an oxide film and extend the life of the iron.

I hope this article will help you with your equipment and maintenance.