Hi,

 

Why does solder melt into some wire and not others??

 

Cheers

 

Vijay

Some wires are not made of copper core.

its usually if the wires have oxidised (corroded). older wiring can suffer from this. using a decent flux cored solder can help

It will depend on whether the wires are pre-tinned, copper, steel, dirty or greasy ...

Sometimes you need to use a separate flux.

it's new headphone wire. Seperate flux - what's that about then? lol

 

Vijay

Headphone wire has an enamel on it, red and green IIRC, you need to heat it quite a lot to burn it off, be carefull though as the fumes are poisonous, or scrape it off with a stanley knife blade or scalpel

tried heating it and still nothing. Scraping it just cut the wire :( Anything else I can try?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

tried heating it and still nothing. Scraping it just cut the wire :( Anything else I can try?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

block connector lol

this one is easy matey..

 

if its coated, get a lighter, and hold the wire one at a time in the flame, you will slowly see the coating burn away, when gone you can let it cool and then genly rub a blade along the wire to remove the soot, but usually you can just solder straight to it.

 

i use 18swg preflux solder for doing headphone cables. but i have a variable and self adjusting solder iorn system here, if you have a solder gun like the ones you buy in the cheap kits or a decent iorn then it is ok it may take a few secs for the solder to take as you have to get a surface adhesion. once it takes hold it will fly around the wire and push out the crap that may be there .

 

 

if your still not sure gimme a pm with a number and i can explain

i actually have one to do here now will do pics!! lol

 

ok on pic 1 you see the cables

 

on pic 2 all im using is a fixed temp soldering iron, a weller model.

 

the tip is clean and i just very slowly run it up and down the wire, it will slowly melt, then i put a small amount of solder onto the wire as im doing this, it will run under the first bit of coating it can and coat the wire, the coating will bubble away leaving the tinned wire. otherwise just do as i said burn the coating with a lighter it will go and then solder

tried heating it and still nothing. Scraping it just cut the wire :( Anything else I can try?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

 

Laco or Everflux may help. dip the sloder in the fulx as well, but make sure all is clean. Clean is the golden rule. I would tin the wire first.

its coated wire niel, so he needs to remove the coating first, best way is to burn it off with a lighter.. take 2 secs that way, fluxing it will make no difference..

thanks guys. The lighter didn't seam to work but running the soldering iron up and down the wire worked :)

 

Cheers again everyone.

 

Vijay

you owe me a big mac meal deal for that !!!!