Weller soldering tips

[bisl]

I have a Weller WES51, so I have their ET family of soldering tips. I just got an ETD, but is it supposed to look like, uh, this?



I'm curious if that can just be filed down, and/or what I'd need to do to refinish the surface after it's cleaned up.

[pby]

You'll ruin the tip by filing it down. The shiny layer is usually made of chrome and there are layers of iron/nickel/copper underneath that. Afraid there is no easy fix other than buying the correct tip shape and size. Research before buying a tip because there are many shapes and sizes which caters for a variety of soldering work.

[ekw808]

No, where did you purchase this tip from?? I bought a tip that had a similar problem, is that a ST1? I bought mine from daleproaudio and they sent me a replacement for free.

[bisl]

I got it from the amazon marketplace through Techni-Tool. Also, I did research the tip before buying, and this is decidedly a defect--the intended design is this:



Although I suppose it is unsettling that weller's own site displays an ETA on the ETD product page[url], just as it does for the ETB as well. Check out the filename on the image.

What a mess.

[alaricljs]

Take a good look, maybe even put it in your iron and turn it on.  That might be tinning, it's a little hard to tell with that pic.

[bisl]

Take a good look, maybe even put it in your iron and turn it on.  That might be tinning, it's a little hard to tell with that pic.

Fianceé just moved in, tons of stuff everywhere, no idea where the camera is--sorry for phone pic

[WhiteFireDragon]

Some tips I bought in the past come pre-tinned, although none of them had that much as your pic shows. If this is the case, it'll just come off after the first use. If that pointy part is NOT tin, then it's a defective one where you can't really just file it down. The core is copper, and you don't really want to solder with exposed copper tips.