Well hello everybody!

Pak here, and today I am making an instructable on how to change out a soldering gun tip from an old Weller D-550 I had come into recent ownership of.

Got a deal at the local pawn shop for this older, but still good, gun for $10. The tip had trouble heating up in the store, but the electronics otherwise worked fine so I bought it in hopes of a short tinker to make it new again.

As you can see the tip was still in bad shape after I buffed it with a wire wheel seeing if it was just corroded and coated with too much carbon, to less than ideal results.

Heated up, but wasn't quite what I wanted. So here we go.

Step 1: Materials

The materials and tools needed for this instructable was short.

1. New Weller D550 tips, purchased from fleet farm for not to bad a price, came in packs of two.

Which was the most expensive part of this, http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/weller-7250w-standard-tips/0000000012419

2. 7/16" wrench to loosen the lugs holding the tip.

3. Flat nosed pliers to bend and shape the tips into place.

4. Wire brush (not pictured) to clean up the connections.

Step 2: Disassembly

Take the 7/16" wrench and lefty-loosey the upper and lower lugs on the guns tip. Once off then if there is anything inside the threads of the lugs or the gun itself, clean it with a wire brush, or electric cleaner if really gummy.

Inspect for any damage, (after all, it is an older gun and a pawn shop find).

Then looking at the tip, take the pliers and straighten the bent ends to allow the lugs to slide off.

Slide the lugs off of the old tip.

Step 3: Reassembly

Following disassemble directions in reverse now, I cleaned the two lugs with a quick one over with a wire brush and made sure there wasn't any gunk to possibly disrupt the electric connection.

The lugs slid easily onto the new tip, then estimating where the bends were in the old tip I bent both ends at a 90 degree angle to prevent the lugs from slipping.

Hooking the bent ends into the gun, you line up the lugs and tighten them back down as tight as you can to ensure a positive connection. Though you can bend the tips either left or right for the gun has holes on both sides, I kept it left as its predecessor.

Step 4: Finished and Back Into the Case.

The gun heated up right away and had a "brand new" like function. So hurrah it is operational! Placing the gun back into its Styrofoam cut out I seen there was room for two additional tips and the missing wrench. So being that little wrench had no other purpose for me I decided to make it part of the kit, though eventually it would be nice to make a "wrench" tool as to fit the cut out as it was. Another day.

Now to do something to clean up and make the case look nice.... hmm..

Thank you all for reading! I really appreciate it and hope it helps!

Pak.