Soldering tips please.

Hi all,

Firstly, I was going to post this in off-topic as the language could possibly offend. However, I have now had another stubby and cooled down to a somewhat rational state.

So I have this sweet Churchwarden stem for my Jazz pipe, but not the correct 510 extension. I've been looking at the long extension for a couple of days, as well as Romaniac's post showing how to shorten it, and thinking surely I can do this.

So, off to the $2 yum-cha brand outlet to buy a new soldering iron. Already have some $1.73 rolls of solder here, should be good to go.

Popped one of the connectors off, poked the wire down into the tube, then after several measures off to the garage to find a cut-off wheel. Can't get the thick one off the grinder to put a 1mm on. She'll be right, and turned out not too bad, bit of a clean up with a file and looks useable.

Has anyone seen how thin the wire is that runs through these things? Tried to strip a bit of insulation off, SNAP. Try again, same thing, now the bloody wire is going to be to short to even attempt to put it back together / solder with all of the parts popped out. Don't want to melt the grommets and insulators see.

So, I've scratched around in one of my shopping bags of busted old electrical stuff, and found some wire in a mouse cable that looks to be the same guage.

Do you think I can combine the heat from the soldering iron, with the nice new solder, and make that bit of wire stick to the tiny little brass thingo that I can barely focus on to start with. Noooooooo.

Can I blame the tools for this? Or am I simply not up to the task.

Can someone please offer some suggestions on making that little tiny piece of wire stick to that eeensy weensy little brass thingo. Before I turn the soldering iron back on and stab myself in both eyes with it.............

Many many thanks. Hope to see some of you soon, if I am still equipped to do so.

Kev

 

its mostly the tools.
scrape a clean area on the brass, then tin the brass, tin the wire first, cheap crap iron is going to be too cold, then too hot .. in between those two points it will be just right for about 30 seconds if you are lucky.
that why we use thermostatically controlled irons and good quality solder with decent flux. cheap solder has crappy flux that is probably not capable of deoxidising the metals.
turn the iron off when its getting too hot.

once you have both bits tinned and the iron is at the right temperature, get em together and melt the solder and add a bit more the the pool.

if you cant get the brass tinned to start with, its never going to join.

 

I had some fun doing up a boxmod with the dna12 the other night with a jaycar elcheapo soldering iron..

Tip would not get hot enough to met the solder in the first place so had to hold the solder at the base of the tip till melting and move it down to the tip then to the surface.. mostly ended up using the screw that holds in the tip as it seemed like the only part hot enough to melt the solder.. finally got it sorted tho..

Did try soldering onto a brass 510 connector at one point but gave up and found a pre-joined one instead might try a touch of sandpaper next time before tinning? and get a decent soldering iron..

 

Prep is always the key to soldering, you need clean bare metal to work with or it is never going to be an easy job. Also good flux helps & a soldering iron that heats up correctly.
Sanding or filing the metal to be soldered will help, just be sure to wipe it clean with a damp rag or alcohol swab to remove bits of filings or sand from the metal. If you can find some flux for solder, on its own, not in the solder already, that will help too. Paint the flux onto the bit to be soldered then heat & solder it.

 

Thanks guys. Too hard basket at the moment as I don't have the tools / skillz / eyesight needed.

Kev

 

Sounds to me like you have to "tin" the tip of the soldering iron first, (Google tinning a soldering iron)
Once you have prepared the tip properly, and all the other surfaces, soldering becomes very easy.