politically correct B.S. makes me crazy

grumpyvette

Administrator
Staff member
I don,t understand how some people think, honestly I needed to do some minor wire repair work on my older corvette so I got out the required tools and supplies to do the job.
I found I had everything I needed except enough solder so I went to the local ACE HARDWARE and I walk in, the clerk asked what I was looking for and I said
" a 1 lb roll of 60%/40% tin / lead solder, and acid core flux paste" I was INFORMED that "REAL SOLDER WAS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AS IT CAUSES CANCER!" he acted like ID asked for a bag of explosives and the blue prints to the local police station, I was obviously in his opinion some one who could not be trusted as I was willing to actually touch "LEAD " you know that horribly dangerous substance they make BULLETS from!

Ive been doing similar solder jobs for 5 plus decades, I thought that wire wrap then solder skill was common knowledge
a good deal of flux on the copper and real tin/lead solder does wonders, in making a great low resistance ,electrical connection
it has become rather obvious to me, after watching my neighbor try to repair his older muscle cars under dash wiring,a few months ago, that many guys have no concept of how to correctly make a wire splice repair so i figure IL post the basics here.
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sensors generally get 12-14 ga anything that carries serious amps is probably 10 ga
and if its for a starter or alternator, or battery it is probably significantly heavier gauge, if your replacing a broken wire you can of course measure to find the old gauge size
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/amps-wire-gauge-d_730.html

http://www.sunforceproducts.com/Sup...harge Controllers/WireGaugeSelectionTable.pdf
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TOOLS YOULL NEED


http://stellartechnical.com/d650gun.aspx

http://www.harborfreight.com/127-piece- ... 67524.html
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a DECENT QUALITY WIRE STRIPPER
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http://www.bing.com/shopping/weller-wel ... ORM=CMSPEE
anything under about 200 watts rating is basically a P.I.T.A. to use and a TOY in my opinion, (and an electric soldering gun with 250-300 plus watts is much easier to use) simply because you can't quickly bring the wire and solder up to the correct temps, with anything less than 200 watts rapidly
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http://stellartechnical.com/d650gun.aspx
FIND AND USE A good 60/40 lead/tin solder, YEAH! THAT'S RIGHT ACTUAL LEAD/TIN< IT WON,T KILL YOU LIKE THE MORONS SEEM TO TELL YOU< IVE USED IT FOR 55 PLUS YEARS AND IF YOUR NOT A TOTAL MORON AND USE IT IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA < ITS NOT GOING TO INSTANTLY CAUSE YOU TO DIE FROM CANCER, LIKE THE JERK AT THE LOCAL HARD WARE STORE SEEM TO THINK IT WILL>

http://www.sears.com/seismic-audio-sa-s ... tType=SRDT
http://www.bing.com/shopping/4-oz-40-60 ... ux&FORM=EG
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http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... d=12582872
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READ THRU THIS LINK

http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/solder.htm

the process is rather easy and simple top do with practice, assuming the standard 14ga-12 ga under dash wiring ,you simple strip off about 1.25" of insulation on each end of the two wires, larger ga wire will require a longer section, of insulation be removed, once thats done , you slide on a section of heat shrink tube. dip the bare copper ends in flux, you spin the stranded wire end between your fingers
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to twist it tightly so it won,t leave exposed copper wire ends and then slide on a 2.5" to 3" long section of heat shrink tube , (don,t forget to do this) now dip both the twisted copper wire ends in the flux, then twist them both together tightly in a spiral so they won,t easily separate, now add a dab of flux because much of its most likely been removed during the twist process but if you don,t do it before you twist its not going to get full coverage on the strands.
ok ideally you,ll have decent access and have the shrink tube slid on the lower wire so it won,t slide down while you solder, use the tip of the heated solder gun on the far side of the two twisted wires and touch the solder to the near side as it heats allowing the fluxed surface to draw the solder once its liquid over and around the spliced copper wire surface, once its well coated pull the solder and solder gun away , it the surface is well coated and smooth silver in appearance you can let it cool a bit then slide on the heat shrink tube , center it over the spice and use the heat from the tip of the solder gun placed near too ,but never touching, and while smoothly moving the guns tip so as not to over heat or burn the shrink tube until it firmly shrinks and hugs the spliced and soldered copper wire, making the soldered splice at least semi protected, the shrink tube, acts as insulation and a corrosion protective barrier , BTW a bit of BEES WAX can be heated and melted over the ends of the shrink tube where it joins the original insulation and used as a increased effective,moisture barrier
 
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Sparky was thinking about plumbing. You're suppose to use lead free solder
joining copper water pipes. They claim that the lead will leach out of the solder
into the drinking water.

I'm not aware of any restriction on electrical connections!

 
I think lead is out all over except in really critical stuff - aerospace, defines, some medical... where failure is NOT an option
 

I'm not having any trouble buying solder with lead online. Have not tried locally.

You Europeans are way ahead on everything these days!!! :D :p

 
i got a cheap heat gun from harbor freight its got a low heat high heat settings and makes safe, fast work of the heat shrink tubing...or fast drying a block and it helps WD 40 penetrate and remove moisture they are on sale now for 15 bucks but I paid 20 for mine...

http://www.harborfreight.com/1500-watt- ... 96289.html

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