Cant solder, metal glue?

[bdog]

ninja,d

Edited October 23, 2011 by bdog

[412 CVX]

I would solder it's easy. It's not hard to learn

Edit 412 CVX Beat me to it

i win!

this is a semi relevant question so i hope it's not a threadjack, but has anybody heard of or used solder pellets/slugs?

i seen a guy use them in a video i saw once. did a search and this is what i came up with.

[armykyle1]

I would solder it's easy. It's not hard to learn

Edit 412 CVX Beat me to it

i win!

this is a semi relevant question so i hope it's not a threadjack, but has anybody heard of or used solder pellets/slugs?

i seen a guy use them in a video i saw once. did a search and this is what i came up with.

My dad has used them but I can't remember why, I'll ask him.

when I'm doing solder connections for power wire I use copper lugs, heat the lug up, feed solder into it, then put the wire in, never had an issue period. Done this on cars and boats.

[ChevyBoy95]

i personally beat the 1/0 ring terminal with a hammer to crimp it extremely well, then solder it also.

[Freshman6969]

the 0g terminals i find the easiest to solder are the ones with the closed ends, just fill it and shove the wire in there, but make sure you test fit the wire before you justjam it in there because youll have strands hanging out, which bothers me , but i find open terminals to be a huge pain in the ass, thats just me though

[DK99]

this is a semi relevant question so i hope it's not a threadjack, but has anybody heard of or used solder pellets/slugs?

i seen a guy use them in a video i saw once. did a search and this is what i came up with.

I have only seen them used on stuff that is solid on one end..

[kickass audio]

Just to give you a little insight on what i do for ALL my power wire connections i have:

1.) I take the wire and strip the jacket off just enough so that the crimped end will have a tiny amount of wire that goes past it (usually its 1/4 of a inch)

2.) Then i take a wire brush that you use to scratch up copper pipes you solder in your house and scratch up the inside of the ring where the wire goes into it

3.) I take some soldering flux and put a good amount of it on the wire i just stripped the jacket off of and put some on the very end of the wire and slide the wire into the ring terminal

4.) I then take the wire and ring terminal and put it into a bench vice and crimp the ring around the wire as hard as i can (if you dont have a bench vice you can do the hammer trick of putting the terminal on the ground and hammering it flat, if you do it this way i do NOT recommend you use a hammer with a grooved head or do this on blacktop, do it on flat concrete if you can)

5.) Take the wire and terminal out of your bench vice and place it so that the terminal is about 3 inches from your bench vice's jaws and tighten the vice so its just holding the wires jacket nice and snug, dont clamp down on it hard!!

6.) Get a pair of long pliers you can use to assist with holding the wire up straight during the entire process and to prevent you from getting burned by the torch or hot wire/terminal

7.) I light up my propane (mapp gas will work too but do this in a well ventilated area) torch and then hold the flame onto the end of the ring terminal for a minute to get the ring and part of the wire heated up, once it starts to get hot i grab my lead free solder and put it right onto where the opening is in the ring like you see in the vids above and i do this until i can see the solder falling down past the ring terminal. I also when i see the solder going past the ring terminal i like to wrap it up by taking the solder and putting a quick line of it across the joint on the terminal to make sure that cant split open at all.

8.) I take the wire out of the bench vice with the pliers you used to hold the wire up straight in the vice and take the wire out of the bench vice

9.) I then soak the terminal under cold water for a second or two until it stops hissing from the water hitting it.

10.) The wire will still be hot so i let it sit on a concrete floor to cool off for a few minutes then i put the rubber boot on the wire and install the wire.

It sounds like a lot i know but its not as hard as it sounds. Basically when you solder just do it like i provided in the steps or like in the videos above. Its personal preference how you want to approach it to be honest. Some people like to crimp their ring terminal, others just solder them on the wire. The only reason i crimp mine is to have the extra insurance that if the solder doesnt stick the wire will still be held into place and not come loose. Also as a little tip when you solder you want the solder to have a nice and shiny or almost mirror finish to it. If when you solder and it is a dull type of finish you arent applying enough heat to the wire/terminal and need to stop putting the solder onto it and heat the area up some more then continue soldering. This is what is called as a cold solder connection and they increase your resistance in your power wire and are very bad to have in any system.

If i were you and this is your first time soldering see if you can get some cheap wire like 8ga or something and play around with soldering it. You cannot solder large wires with a soldering gun, it just wont put out the heat needed to get the entire wire bundle or connector hot to melt the solder into it uniformly.

edit to 412 cvx: the solder pellets are good to use but are sometimes a pain to use because if for example you solder your wire with pellets and place 3 pellets on the top of the opening for the terminal it will usually melt the pellets before it has any chance to seep into the wire and it will make the solder melt and go on the outside of the terminal instead. I prefer to just get a long spool of solder and feed that onto the surface i am soldering and be done with it. Pellets are a matter of knowing how many pellets will be enough to produce the amount of solder you need.

Edited October 24, 2011 by kickass audio

[armykyle1]

Just to give you a little insight on what i do for ALL my power wire connections i have:

1.) I take the wire and strip the jacket off just enough so that the crimped end will have a tiny amount of wire that goes past it (usually its 1/4 of a inch)

2.) Then i take a wire brush that you use to scratch up copper pipes you solder in your house and scratch up the inside of the ring where the wire goes into it

3.) I take some soldering flux and put a good amount of it on the wire i just stripped the jacket off of and put some on the very end of the wire and slide the wire into the ring terminal

4.) I then take the wire and ring terminal and put it into a bench vice and crimp the ring around the wire as hard as i can (if you dont have a bench vice you can do the hammer trick of putting the terminal on the ground and hammering it flat, if you do it this way i do NOT recommend you use a hammer with a grooved head or do this on blacktop, do it on flat concrete if you can)

5.) Take the wire and terminal out of your bench vice and place it so that the terminal is about 3 inches from your bench vice's jaws and tighten the vice so its just holding the wires jacket nice and snug, dont clamp down on it hard!!

6.) Get a pair of long pliers you can use to assist with holding the wire up straight during the entire process and to prevent you from getting burned by the torch or hot wire/terminal

7.) I light up my propane (mapp gas will work too but do this in a well ventilated area) torch and then hold the flame onto the end of the ring terminal for a minute to get the ring and part of the wire heated up, once it starts to get hot i grab my lead free solder and put it right onto where the opening is in the ring like you see in the vids above and i do this until i can see the solder falling down past the ring terminal. I also when i see the solder going past the ring terminal i like to wrap it up by taking the solder and putting a quick line of it across the joint on the terminal to make sure that cant split open at all.

8.) I take the wire out of the bench vice with the pliers you used to hold the wire up straight in the vice and take the wire out of the bench vice

9.) I then soak the terminal under cold water for a second or two until it stops hissing from the water hitting it.

10.) The wire will still be hot so i let it sit on a concrete floor to cool off for a few minutes then i put the rubber boot on the wire and install the wire.

It sounds like a lot i know but its not as hard as it sounds. Basically when you solder just do it like i provided in the steps or like in the videos above. Its personal preference how you want to approach it to be honest. Some people like to crimp their ring terminal, others just solder them on the wire. The only reason i crimp mine is to have the extra insurance that if the solder doesnt stick the wire will still be held into place and not come loose. Also as a little tip when you solder you want the solder to have a nice and shiny or almost mirror finish to it. If when you solder and it is a dull type of finish you arent applying enough heat to the wire/terminal and need to stop putting the solder onto it and heat the area up some more then continue soldering. This is what is called as a cold solder connection and they increase your resistance in your power wire and are very bad to have in any system.

If i were you and this is your first time soldering see if you can get some cheap wire like 8ga or something and play around with soldering it. You cannot solder large wires with a soldering gun, it just wont put out the heat needed to get the entire wire bundle or connector hot to melt the solder into it uniformly.

edit to 412 cvx: the solder pellets are good to use but are sometimes a pain to use because if for example you solder your wire with pellets and place 3 pellets on the top of the opening for the terminal it will usually melt the pellets before it has any chance to seep into the wire and it will make the solder melt and go on the outside of the terminal instead. I prefer to just get a long spool of solder and feed that onto the surface i am soldering and be done with it. Pellets are a matter of knowing how many pellets will be enough to produce the amount of solder you need.

nice post man! I tried to give feed back but I can't lol