Weller LT tip family for WSP80 WP80 and T800 series soldering tip - Mini Review

[Kiriakos GR]

Weller LT soldering tip family, this extends to a significantly large amount of options.
Most Weller customers they are full aware about them due the relative brochures.
 
But .. there is one Best advice this not written at any paper and or user guide (user manual).

Weller LT tip family this has several models of short in total length tip, these it might deliver best thermal conductivity, but at the cost of you damaging frequently the tip sleeve barrel of your soldering iron.

Due personal my experience, I become Weller LT T800 Series user,  because I did purchase at 2013 one Chinese soldering station ( a clone of the Weller system).
This clone came with LT1 tip (a clone of LT1 tip) which seemed nice in the beginning.
I do not do heavy duty use of my soldering station, I might perform about 80 soldering tasks within an entire year.
But even with such occasional use, I might now measuring 800 of soldering tasks within a decade.
The tip barrel this is now destroyed at the tip end.

Now the damage seems to be caused mostly because the LT tip that I was using this is very short in length.
Tip sleeve end, this were frequently splashed with soldering cream, and this caused a faster deterioration at the sleeve end.
We might name it, oxidation?  tip fusing?  either way this negative effect it was also damaging and the soldering tip it self.

No one ever gave me the golden advice, about me to avoid using the sort in length of LT tip series.

The sort LT1 (0.25mm) this has a longer brother = LT1L at 26mm (0.25mm Conical).

From the rest LT series I did select LTCC this is 17mm long  ( 3.2 mm wide Round tip sloped 60° ).

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The Chinese maker of my soldering station never gave me any advice about tip cleaning.
From another Weller LT clone soldering station from Taiwan (this is now discontinued),  their advice was about soldering tip cleaning and sleeve cleaning after its use.
This advice it might sound correct but this is totally impractical.

Especially when some one he is using the tiny LT1 and similar ones, because it is like holding at a giant fingertips something smaller than a bean.

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The practical solution this is no other than to avoid all sort in length of LT tip.

Also there is in the market one sponge surrounded with sandpaper (cloth), this is for house building and for fine-tuning of plaster surfaces.
This sponge shown also as superior tool for removal from the body of soldering tip, of any foreign material which has stuck over it.

This is it, you can significantly minimize the chances of soldering tip along sleeve barrel damage, due my own advice. 

[Kiriakos GR]

Let's go a bit further educational. 
Of what a sloped 60° tip can do, this image below it does explain it all.

[Kiriakos GR]

Interesting find : How many Weller LT1L they are out there?

The part code    :  0054442399 this is of LT1L production of Japan,  tip end diameter 0.20 mm  (Year  2006)
While part code : 0054442599 this is of LT1L production of China,  tip end diameter 0.25 mm  (nowadays)

Another interesting detail is tip base forming.
Most older revisions they appear as solid in shape base, while recent revision appears as two flattened disc these be unified.
I can think of it as design improvement, so the tip to not stuck that easy within the tip sleeve barrel.