osteoderm
out of the box
This is an excellent thread! To the soldering posts, I'd add the advice to flux, tin, and use enough heat.
For the uninitiated, flux is basically a mild acid that strips surface contamination off the wire and slightly etches it so that the solder will stick. I agree with 1974jh5 about rosin-core wire, but it's always helpful to have a little pot of paste flux and an acid brush handy. I really appreciate flux when soldering terminals, old/dirty/oily wire, throttle cables, etc. A proper flux job will go a long way towards letting the solder flow instead of bead up and roll off the metal.
To use the flux, just dab a tiny amount on the wire and/or terminal, then heat with a touch of the soldering iron until it melts and flows. Don't burn it! If it goes black and bubbly, it'll just be adding more contamination, not removing it. Use just enough to do the job; if there's any semi-liquid residue dripping, you've gone too far, and it should be cleaned off.
Tinning is just applying a thin surface layer of solder to the separate parts before soldering them together. Tinned wires and parts are a little quicker to solder, as you don't need to fill the wire up with material or fight to put enough heat in. You just have to add an extra dab, or re-melt the tinning and let the parts flow together.
I feel that the two things that most frustrate people who have a hard time soldering are dirty surfaces (failure to properly flux, be it with paste or rosin-core wire), and using too little heat. Ever heat a wire and have the solder barely melt, while the insulation on the wire softens, shrinks, or smokes? The wire is pulling the heat away from the solder joint faster than you can put it in. A more powerful iron gets the heat into the solder fast, before the wire can pull the heat away.
I use a Weller WESD51 station, set to 575 degrees for this sort of general small-ga wiring. I was reluctant to spend the money on one, but I tell ya, the first time you use a decent 50+ watt station, you'll wonder how you ever did without.
For the uninitiated, flux is basically a mild acid that strips surface contamination off the wire and slightly etches it so that the solder will stick. I agree with 1974jh5 about rosin-core wire, but it's always helpful to have a little pot of paste flux and an acid brush handy. I really appreciate flux when soldering terminals, old/dirty/oily wire, throttle cables, etc. A proper flux job will go a long way towards letting the solder flow instead of bead up and roll off the metal.
To use the flux, just dab a tiny amount on the wire and/or terminal, then heat with a touch of the soldering iron until it melts and flows. Don't burn it! If it goes black and bubbly, it'll just be adding more contamination, not removing it. Use just enough to do the job; if there's any semi-liquid residue dripping, you've gone too far, and it should be cleaned off.
Tinning is just applying a thin surface layer of solder to the separate parts before soldering them together. Tinned wires and parts are a little quicker to solder, as you don't need to fill the wire up with material or fight to put enough heat in. You just have to add an extra dab, or re-melt the tinning and let the parts flow together.
I feel that the two things that most frustrate people who have a hard time soldering are dirty surfaces (failure to properly flux, be it with paste or rosin-core wire), and using too little heat. Ever heat a wire and have the solder barely melt, while the insulation on the wire softens, shrinks, or smokes? The wire is pulling the heat away from the solder joint faster than you can put it in. A more powerful iron gets the heat into the solder fast, before the wire can pull the heat away.
I use a Weller WESD51 station, set to 575 degrees for this sort of general small-ga wiring. I was reluctant to spend the money on one, but I tell ya, the first time you use a decent 50+ watt station, you'll wonder how you ever did without.