[DanDrury]

Hope this is in the right place.

This is mainly a 'How do YOU do it? Is this right?' thread.

I soldered up a headunit ISO connector a few days ago as it had been crimped, badly.

My method is strip the cable, twist the wire, dip it in flux.

I have a soldering gun (it was cheap) with a wide/flat point, i melt a small pool of solder on that, and lay the wire in that and move up and down to cover.

Do that on both wires, then put a little more solder on the iron, put both wires together, and lay in the solder. Once the solder melts, gently lift them out. And let cool. Then heatshrink to protect.

I will be doing a few eyelets onto some thocker cable, so planned to flux and tin wire, then open up the eyelet crimp, flux, the. Push wire in and gently squeeze to hold its place. The. Heat and add solder. Will this work ok? Any other way/tips?

Cheers

 

[Vegas]

In by no means a pro. Way I see it is like this.

Two cables bare the ends.

Twist them so they sit as one wire.

Hold soldering iron under the exposed wire with solder ontop of exposed wire, wait for solder to melt on it. Heatshrink and done

 

[DanDrury]

I could never get it to melt, until i used flux. I would sit of ages waiting then it would only be half melted. lol

 

[Rob]

your doing it fine.

try some heatshrink.

 

[taurus]

Sounds good to me - the key things to good soldering are A) to make sure the parts being soldered are very clean (even grease of your fingers will weaken the joint) B) to use a good quality soldering iron that puts heat into the joint quickly.

Re. B) - cheap low power soldering irons are fine for small jobs, but as soon as you move onto thicker cable then the heat dissipation really kicks in and can cause issues.

 

[DanDrury]

I found when attempting to solder 8awg, it was taking forever. And started melting the insulation off. I grabbed a load of crocodile clips, clipped them on the wire to draw some of the heat away from the cable, and it just about soldered 1/4 of the tip. So i gave up!

Thanks, i think its a 100w soldering gun, not iron. I plan on getting a decent tenp controlled iron.

 

[Hardcore]

Just stay away from the cheapo soldering irons on ebay. I got a high watt one for about £13. I thought it was a bargain for soldering my RC parts, but when i accidentally left it on for about 30 minutes after i finished soldering. When i realised and went back, the whole thing was buckled like a banana from the heat. Dangerous.

 

[DanDrury]

I think the gun ive got was around £20, im sure it around 100w. And does get very hot. If the trigger is held too long, it goes a lovely shade of red. But the tip doesnt stay hot for very long after though?

 

[Lee]

I use a gas soldering iron at work for the little fiddly wiring jobs. I do the method mark described above and use a solder wire that doesn't require flux.

 

[DanDrury]

I use a gas soldering iron at work for the little fiddly wiring jobs. I do the method mark described above and use a solder wire that doesn't require flux.

That may be why the solder i have doesnt flow onto the cable. Will have to get some of that

 

[taurus]

The problem with soldering guns is that they hold very little heat to pass into heavier gauge wire. They might look hot, but there's very little metal there that is hot, so the small amount of metal in the tip loses it's heat too quickly.

For thicker stuff it's easier to use a proper iron which has a good solid tip - that way the iron has a good 'reserve' of heat to pass into the job.

 

[DanDrury]

Makes sense, i may well invest in one of those sooner than i thought. Any recommendations?