Homebrew PCBs

Several months ago I found I was going through many Radio Shack
soldering iron tips very quickly. I then found some Kester Ultrapure
Tip Tinner - it has no lead at all in it, and so it leaves a coating
of tin on the tip. Since then, I have been using the same tip for many
months. 

I also use a lamp dimmer to crank back the temperature when I'm not
using the iron right away but plan to fairly soon.

Both these seem to have helped. But I think the tip tinning stuff was
the most important, since I accidentally left the iron on overnight,
and the tip was still fine.

Grant

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, John Baker
<johnbaker_erie_pa@y...> wrote:
> Thanks for all this info. I'm fairly new to making PCBs, but do a
lot of PCB repair work. I've gone through soo many radioshack $7 irons. 
> Best regards,
> John Baker