Page 176 - Make Your Own PCBs with EAGLE from Schematic Designs to Finished Boards

FIGURE 7-6 Brass soldering iron tip cleaner.

The only real advantage of using a damp sponge is that it makes a great hissing noise as the hot tip
of the iron is rubbed across it. It does, however, suffer from a number of disadvantages:

• The thermal shock of cooling the tip quickly as it comes into contact with the wet sponge will

shorten the life of the tip.
• You have to keep wetting the sponge and need a supply of water.

Tools for Surface-Mount Devices

When attempting surface-mount soldering by hand, you probably will need all the equipment that I
have just described for through-hole soldering. In fact, you can get away with just using regular

soldering equipment. However, there are a number of special items that make surface-mount
soldering simpler.

Hot-Air Gun

A hot-air gun (Figure 7-7) has interchangeable nozzles of different sizes that allow you to deliver a
stream of hot air to an area of a circuit board.