Soldering

[droopy89]

Does anyone wanna give me a little advice on how to solder some smaller gauge wire together? Its late, im tired, and i keep burning my fingers with the iron im using, and im using 60/40 rosin core if that makes a difference

[audioaddiction863]

Use silver solder it works great on small projects.

[Stephen]

What gauge wire?

what diameter solder?

Twist the wire together and heat up the wire hot enough that when you touch the solder to the wire it will melt and flow. You heat up the wire with the iron not the solder.

[droopy89]

Thats what im doing, maybe my iron cant get the wires hot enough

[David]

thats possible, when I was Racing RC cars, we would sand the tips so it was good clean metal, the iron would got hotter and heat up more quickly.

[The Performer]

If the wire is too big then you're doing it the hard way, soldering irons are usually best used for small wires, (14-24 gauge) but when you're doing BIG wire go with a torch and you'll find it's so much easier that it should be considered a law.

If you're going to be doing more work like this might as well just go ahead and invest in a small torch. I got a refillable butane torch from walmart (automotive wiring section) for less than $15. It comes in handy when soldering on ring terminals or just tinning cable ends, not to mention works great on small wire if you practice. Hell, I use it more than my iron just cause it's convinient.

[MECHMAN]

If the wire is too big then you're doing it the hard way, soldering irons are usually best used for small wires, (14-24 gauge) but when you're doing BIG wire go with a torch and you'll find it's so much easier that it should be considered a law.

If you're going to be doing more work like this might as well just go ahead and invest in a small torch. I got a refillable butane torch from walmart (automotive wiring section) for less than $15. It comes in handy when soldering on ring terminals or just tinning cable ends, not to mention works great on small wire if you practice. Hell, I use it more than my iron just cause it's convinient.

If you find yourself doing a lot of larger diameter soldering, you can buy these special irons called "hot lips." They come with a transformer, and look like a pair of needle nose pliers. When you "tweeze" the tips together so they are touching eachother, they get SUPER hot, SUPER fast. It will actually heat up a 1/0 cable and ring connector faster than my propane torch. Because it transfers heat faster, you don't end up overheating the cable and melting the insulation.