My first thought is, perhaps it's corrosion, from high or excess heat, these are disposable parts after all, but what really contributes to this kind of wear, and is there anything that can be done to prevent it being so sudden or so soon?
Often I find the soldering tips in the workstation to be bent, or the end of the tip looking like it's snapped off.
What're your thoughts?
How long do tips last for you or how often do you replace them?
What do you use to take care of your soldering iron?
Pictures really tell a lot in a thread like this so here are my irons and a collection of old tips:
The Aoyue is the iron part of my hot air rework station - I don't use the iron part much, because it isn't as good as the Hakko I use most of the time (I didn't bring the whole Hakko over for the picture).
The blue tip in the middle is the one I am currently using in the Hakko.
The Tenma is new, courtesy of element14 - only used in my camera area so far.
The Yong Feng looks unused because it is - I bought it for $12 - it might see some use for mobile work since the temperature control is in the handle, eliminating the big controller block.
Some of the tips have a worn spot that doesn't "wet" with solder well but I don't throw them out in case I want to use them for melting PLA or hot glue or some other application that would mess up a nice tip.
dougw wrote:
...
Some of the tips have a worn spot that doesn't "wet" with solder well but I don't throw them out ...
For those cases, I use these two:
As you can see, I don't use it often. Only when I create spots that don't wet (typically when melting a connector away with the iron because "it needs to go" 
)
The polish bar and activator are not to be used when the tip is OK. They are not maintenance utilities, but repair. They have downsides.
dougw wrote:
...
Some of the tips have a worn spot that doesn't "wet" with solder well but I don't throw them out ...
For those cases, I use these two:
As you can see, I don't use it often. Only when I create spots that don't wet (typically when melting a connector away with the iron because "it needs to go" )
The polish bar and activator are not to be used when the tip is OK. They are not maintenance utilities, but repair. They have downsides.
