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by Joel_Mckay 36 days ago
Brass wool is often just copper plated steel, and will damage the plating. Thus, pin holes in the tips iron, nickel, or chrome plating begin to pit the copper core.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/brass-sponge-has-rui...

Anecdotally, all wool seems to accumulate abrasive crud, various amalgamated solder waste, melted plastics, and trimmed bits of steel etc.

Best of luck =3
1 comments
ssl-3 35 days ago
That's certainly a concern, but it's completely ameliorated by buying real brass wool.

The stuff that came with my (apparently genuine) Hakko 599B is non-ferrous (and is therefore not steel). Refills are Hakko part 599-029.

Soldering iron tips are usually made from copper with a thick iron plating. On Moh's hardness scale, iron doesn't care much about what brass thinks. :)

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BenjiWiebe 34 days ago
Yes I've only used the one that came with my Hakko soldering iron, and I just got a replacement from Hakko since my old one is getting pretty full of solder bits.

The tip on my soldering iron is perfectly fine though.

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ssl-3 29 days ago
The 599B is a Hakko assembly that combines a (kind of cheesy-looking) gold-anodized, thin, stamped, aluminum housing and one of their brass wool inserts.

AFAICT, it works well with all soldering irons. I certainly haven't noticed any detriment to my soldering irons over the >decade I've used it. It really seems to be fine and it sure is simple to use.

(I really have needed to buy new brass wool for a few years now, though. It works, but it is not nearly as slick-and-clean to use as it once was. Sourcing this from Hakko directly seems like a safe route and it's probably cheap-enough -- maybe I'll buy a few refills and have some for the rest of my life.)

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Joel_Mckay 35 days ago
Was never a fan of spendy rapid PID based mini-heaters, but some people do prefer that design.

In situations where PCB ground pours removed thermal-reliefs for power handling reasons, mini-cartridge-heaters often simply don't have enough thermal mass to heat an area fast enough without the control-loop missing temperature ranges and or time limits.

Anecdotally, same reason good portable butane catalytic iron units are often superior to USB-C/battery operated units.

Note Zinc contact is restricted in some places, and that ban includes zinc-brass sources. Best of luck =3

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