Soldering!

My 'loot' for Christmas included a Weller temp. adjustable soldering iron. I have a whole engine wiring harness to go through and adjust the length on, so I needed/wanted something more than the $3 Garage sale plug in one I was using.

I put it to the test tonight! I had 2 different types of Solder around, and I could only get the one on the right to melt/pull through the wires. I'm not sure if it's just because it's almost half the diameter, or if there's something more. For the ones that worked, I learned quickly to keep the tip tinned liberally and good things happen. The machine seems to work well!

Those who have experience soldering (looking primarily at wiring harness, not super sensitive work), do you have a favorite solder/ diameter?

I use rosin core solder like the stuff that wasn't working for you (d'oh), generally I find finer easier to deal with, until it's too small for the wire at hand and it gets awkward to feed enough in quickly.

Paste flux might help.

I don't know whether the way I know is right, but I tend to thoroughly wet both wires to be soldered with solder, then melt them together, not adding any solder when actually joining the ends. I don't twist the wires; solder is plenty strong, and a plenty good contact, and it makes separating things later more awkward (and rejoining them after that really awkward).

Dip the wire in the paste flux, heat it with the iron 'til the solder flows in (when touched to the wire, of course, not the tip; but since you're having trouble melting the heavier stuff, I suspect you're not cheating the melt). Do the same to the other piece. Hold them together and heat one 'til it melts and then 'til heat transfers from the heated side to melt the other one (won't be long after the first one melts).

I'm out of practice, not up on aerospace techniques, and generally not an expert. Just some guy with several years of racing electric R/C cars a lifetime ago, and not many wiring failures. Though I'll be damned if I could ever expunge all the gremlins from my bassist's bass...

Could be a myth, but I've always heard lead free solder is harder to work with, I know you need the heat a little higher for the unleaded alloys since they all have higher melting point. Flux quality in the cheap stuff comes into play too. The Kester 44 series is supposedly the good stuff, 63/37 is supposedly better than 60/40.

I'd get rid of the solder on the left, or keep it around for when in a real pinch. I had a roll of that and it sucked without adding a lot of heat and more flux than it really needed. The rs silver bearing solder is good stuff. Now that I can't get it locally, I'll probably start ordering the Kester stuff on Amazon.

For electrical wiring, use the smallest diameter of solder you can find. I've never had to use the leadfree stuff, but a friend in the electronics industry refuses to use it. I've also never had to use any sort of flux on copper wire, unless the copper is old and contaminated.

Only use Rosin Core Lead based solder on electronics. Use the smallest diameter you can find, the diameter of the stuff on the right but the composition of the stuff on the left. Radio Shack carries a good roll of it, if there is still a crap shack near you.

Yep. Plumber's solder is a no-no on electronics.

As a total aside to this, can anyone tell me why the L is dropped when you say the word solder or soldering in this country. The Brits keep the L, here you say Sod-er or Sod-ering. What did L ever donto piss you off?

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

You guys throw "U"s around Willy Nilly and you're going to question our treatment of excess "L"s?

Dr. Hess wrote: Only use Rosin Core Lead based solder on electronics. Use the smallest diameter you can find, the diameter of the stuff on the right but the composition of the stuff on the left. Radio Shack carries a good roll of it, if there is still a crap shack near you.

Hess is right. Rosin core lead solder is what you need. I use Multicore brand and it's incredible but also quite pricey. A good big spool pushes $40.

https://www.amazon.com/MULTICORE-LOCTITE-3096525-M-SOLDER-WIRE/dp/B00DKF13JY

I've done a ton of soldering and this stuff is like butter when it melts and it will flow immediately and cleanly into your wires.

Neither of the solders you have are appropriate for wire soldering. The lead free stuff will be brittle and tend to crack.

My solder-fu is terrible. Bad things happen when you put a soldering iron in my hands.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: As a total aside to this, can anyone tell me why the L is dropped when you say the word solder or soldering in this country. The Brits keep the L, here you say Sod-er or Sod-ering. What did L ever donto piss you off?

Whatever it was mustn't have been as bad as the u in colour, we killed him completely

Wall-e wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: You guys throw "U"s around Willy Nilly and you're going to question our treatment of excess "L"s?

Yeah, not to mention the extra "r" that comes along at the end of every single word that ends in "a".

I suppose you also pronounce the "p" in pterodactyl and the "k" in know and knife?

The weirdest one for me though is colonel. Somehow "olo" is supposed to make an "er" sound? I think the brits actually pronounce that similarly however.

EDIT: CAN WE NOW JUST START SAYING 'YER' INSTEAD OF 'YOLO'?

curtis73 wrote: My solder-fu is terrible. Bad things happen when you put a soldering iron in my hands.

For butt-joining two wires, I agree. I make such a mess I now basically only crimp. So much faster too.

Building something on a board I am more effective, but how often do you do that?

For the crimpless: Lineman splice

patgizz wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: As a total aside to this, can anyone tell me why the L is dropped when you say the word solder or soldering in this country. The Brits keep the L, here you say Sod-er or Sod-ering. What did L ever donto piss you off?

Whatever it was mustn't have been as bad as the u in colour, we killed him completely

dculberson wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: Only use Rosin Core Lead based solder on electronics. Use the smallest diameter you can find, the diameter of the stuff on the right but the composition of the stuff on the left. Radio Shack carries a good roll of it, if there is still a crap shack near you.

Hess is right. Rosin core lead solder is what you need. I use Multicore brand and it's incredible but also quite pricey. A good big spool pushes $40. https://www.amazon.com/MULTICORE-LOCTITE-3096525-M-SOLDER-WIRE/dp/B00DKF13JY I've done a ton of soldering and this stuff is like butter when it melts and it will flow immediately and cleanly into your wires. Neither of the solders you have are appropriate for wire soldering. The lead free stuff will be brittle and tend to crack.

I do a lot of soldering at work. Wires, small components, some large thru hole. And I've always soldered my car audio stuff. I have tons of stations, tips, and solder to use. You're using the wrong solder for your application.

On newer cars don't even bother with solder. I repaired a chewed thru sensor on my girlfriend's 2010 corolla and could barely get the solder to stick to the wire. I didn't have any other options due to where the wire was severed.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: As a total aside to this, can anyone tell me why the L is dropped when you say the word solder or soldering in this country. The Brits keep the L, here you say Sod-er or Sod-ering. What did L ever donto piss you off?

Your argument is invalid. You're country came up with how to pronounce the word "Colonel".

Hey I have that same iron, wife got it for me X-Mas 5 years ago. I can't get it to solder for crap. I went back to using my 30w RadioShack special. I need to play with it some more I guess. I also could never get the tip tinned on it. I have to use the very back of the tip where it screws in, to get the solder to melt. I wish it was an awesome unit, but for me it wasn't.

Only solder been using on automotive wiring forever, good E36 M3 there

Twist depending on the strands, dab of flux. Nothing freestanding, always use a wood block backup to push the gun against the joint if possible, no lost heat.

Even w/ crimp type connectors. Crimp, flux joint, plant connector against wood block, heat, apply solder. Done. Shrink wrap all.

You guys are complaining about Colonel amd saying nothing about lieutenant and it actually being correctly prounounced Left-en-ant.

You guys and your Kensaw and Are-can-sas!

Wall-e wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: You guys throw "U"s around Willy Nilly and you're going to question our treatment of excess "L"s?

They like to add vowels apparently. Can you say "aluminium"

In reply to NEALSMO:

They added the i so that it matches the pattern set by the name convention of the other elements.

fasted58 wrote: Only solder been using on automotive wiring forever, good E36 M3 there

When they were getting ready to close the only local RS store, I bought the last 6 rolls they had. Best and easiest stuff to work with that I know of.

I've got a couple rolls of the RS .015" stuff laying around somewhere that I like. I've always found that the easiest to work with but I'm sort of a neanderthal with a soldering iron.