Do you use the wet sponge to clean the iron after using?

Mess levels vary between :
"it trips mom's ocd but seems ordered to me"
"it's the level of mess perfectly normal for me"
"it makes me waste a little more effort getting things done / finding something"
"it makes me waste a WHOLE LOT of effort getting things done / finding something"
"it makes me UNABLE to get things done / find something"

I have oversimplified it, cause here are also intwined what mom says about it, what girlfriend says about it, what extra unaccounted for havoc can little brother and sister & their friends they bring into the house & the cats & ... add to the potion, and "things done" could be divided into "the few important things i keep in better shape" vs "everything else"

In the end of the day, your goal is not ORDER, but ENERGY EFFICIENCY

You have to find the level of mess, which, along with the amount of ORDER work required to maintain it (keep the mess from getting progressively worse), TOGETHER require the least effort investment (energy, time, ...) from you on average -

 - Leaving you with the most resources (energy, time, ...) available to do OTHER more important things in your life, than navigating or ordering the mess in your room -

 - And preferrably doesn't result in cringe reactions from girlfriend, mom, or increased risk of smashed tubes by accidents (which may or may not involve girlfriend, mom, brother, sister, their friends, or cats).

Which may be very different levels of mess for everyone

Besides, "on average" is also very different for everyone - For somebody it may be constant level constantly maintained, and for somebody cycles of "mess level going up" and "sorting it out.... till next time"

I use a cheap soldering iron that uses 900M style tips. Out of the tips it came with, I preferred the bevel style the best. But of course as I was just learning then how to solder nicely, I ruined the tip. As the plating was already completely gone anyway (evidenced by very rapid erosion), I  filed the tip down (I know, I know). Turns out the core was just plain copper inside. So unsurprisingly it kept dissolving away over time, and I kept filing it down. I just threw it out when it got too short.

Then I made my own solid copper bevel tip with a piece of 1/4" copper tubing and some 4 AWG solid copper wire that I turned down with a file in my drill and press fit into the tubing. Knowing that it was going to erode away (I use lead-free which makes it worse), I made it pretty long. That tip was absolutely excellent, lots of thermal mass and heated things really fast, and held lots of solder. Used it for everything. Wide bevel tips are definitely what I like. Well now it's getting a little too stubby after many many "resurfacings" (filing + sanding), and so I just made another one but didn't use it yet. Of course I could just buy a proper 900M 5mm bevel tip, but that's no fun.

I have seen some Youtube videos of people making copper soldering iron tips and then plating them in nickel to make them not erode away. I know that usually tips are plated with iron for this reason, but will nickel work sufficiently for this purpose? I have nickel plated various things before and I can do it again, but I don't wanna do it if it isn't actually gonna work. I haven't seen any long term results from the people who nickel plate their tips.

I also made a tip out of steel, which took a few tries to tin properly (using special acid flux) but it obviously ended up being horrible. Just not thermally conductive enough. Maybe usable for soldering very small wires, and for that it would have a very long life, but just unusable for anything larger.

Does anyone know a lot about soldering who can answer this? Should I nickel plate my copper tips, or just keep filing them away as they inevitably erode? I know lead-free solder is more aggressive, does this affect the decision?

Thanks!

That’s actually incredible! 🤔, and a good testament to how hard ass quartz is! 😎

TikTok is still brain rot. At my work we had some F32T8s on an electronic ballast get replaced with Ledvance selectable-color LED tubes, and unlike the old fluorescent tubes, these actually flicker to the point being nauseating. When a fan is on the desk you can see it as the blades spin on medium speed.
 

The only problem is that my mom is picky about me getting lighting stuff because she thinks that I will run out of space (she's been thinking that for over 7 years, in which I got multiple 4ft fixtures and hundreds of lamps and I still have space lol) but hopefully I can get them!

It seems that no mother wants her child(s) to make the house messy because of collecting things Because I had purchased a lot of HIDs and fluorescent lamps (including two outdoor floodlights and a lot of EOLed lamps replaced from my home), my room became a mess a long time ago. Every time she enters my room, she gets very angry, even though I have already tried to arrange them in order

If the same effort and resources would be put into traditional lighting, we might have had 200 Lm/W halides

How do you think we would have been able to achieve 200 lm/W metal halide lamps? After all, that's about as good as a 131W SOX-E lamp today.

That type of stuff really makes my blood boil. 3800 lumens out of 45W is pretty bad for LED by modern standards, but 3000 lumens out of a 150W metal halide bulb is just pure BS! That's practically the efficiency of a good halogen bulb, and very far from the actual efficiency of a 150W MH bulb.

https://eco-story.com/uncategorized/led-outdoor-lighting-vs-metal-halide/

That's the sort of fraud which enabled LED to gain the popularity in the 1st place, during 15 years in which it was NOT the most efficient light source

If the same effort and resources would be put into traditional lighting, we might have had 200 Lm/W halides and 120 Lm/W Fluorescents by now

The page i linked is as old as the existence of Tiktok as whole, and is by far not the earliest example on the internet



Regarding Fluorescents and flicker - Yep, they do flicker, and even at 100Hz here

My workshop right now is lit up with 36W T8's and the outside has a 400W halide, all on magnetic gear, and you don't see the flicker at all because it is soft. You really have to set up a test to detect it

Nearly all LED high bay luminaires on the market have mad squarewave flicker that you immediately see with your eyes

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8xaBesc/

99% of the people in the comments don't know a thing about fluorescent lighting.

Fluorescent lamps will only flicker when used on magnetic ballast, and almost all fluorescent fixtures that currently exist use electronic high frequency ballasts, no flicker will be caused.

Any UV created by the lamps would be blocked out by any plastic lens used, and in almost every example shown in the comments it is a fluorescent troffer with a plastic lens.

Many of these people also make the claim of high levels of blue light, any other efficient lighting technology would have the same problem without sacrificing efficiency.

Lastly, the claim that fluorescent lighting is too bright doesn't make much sense, if they got the place to switch to LED, it would be equally as bright if not brighter.

By the looks of it, most of these people straight up want to switch back to incandescent if not get rid of indoor lighting entirely. I'll stop my rant now.