Solder Kit arrived today

[jonwade]

Note - I am totally new to this and have not got a clue really!

I bought a solder kit on ebay, partly because I need to solder 2 RCA plugs onto to cable, and partly because I felt that at the age of 39 years it is something I should own.

I bought a cheap bit of kit for for £7.95 which has everything I need I think.



I did some soldering once or twice at school, and it comes with a booklet by Alan Winstanley too!

 

[davethsparky]

Lead free solder is not a patch on good old 60/40!

As far a soldering goes practice makes perfect.
Make sure you use a decent flux cored solder
Tin the tip of the iron before you use it and keep it clean always.
Tin both parts to be joined before joining them.
Wet the tip of the iron with a drop of solder each time you pick it up.
And practice.

 

[jonwade]

My RCA plugs came with some "audio grade solder" - although I have no idea what it means. Enough to solder the connectors though.

I watched a good Youtube video where the wires were tinned. I will not be soldering immediately though, but will wait to check that the cable works as expected before soldering the plugs on. It is only for a sub-woofer which I do not even own yet - or have permission from the boss to buy. I will soon be arguing that as the new living room has a taller ceiling we need a sub-woofer to prevent the floor standers from overheating ..... I think she will fall for it!

 

[Marvo]

Lol, good luck with that, I'm trying to get the wife to agree to me buying a beautiful vintage 6 meter band radio on Gumtree but she's having none of it.

Sometimes when you solder plugs you can't pre-tin the wire because it won't fit into the center pin if you do. As already stated it's pretty straight forward, you just need some practice

 

[RWJ]

Lol, good luck with that, I'm trying to get the wife to agree to me buying a beautiful vintage 6 meter band radio on Gumtree but she's having none of it.

Sometimes when you solder plugs you can't pre-tin the wire because it won't fit into the center pin if you do. As already stated it's pretty straight forward, you just need some practice

Sweet! You never know we could have a QSO one day!

 

[Hundleton1]

Lol, good luck with that, I'm trying to get the wife to agree to me buying a beautiful vintage 6 meter band radio on Gumtree but she's having none of it.

Sometimes when you solder plugs you can't pre-tin the wire because it won't fit into the center pin if you do. As already stated it's pretty straight forward, you just need some practice

Man I do miss my radio days, I used to have a 18" 3 element yagi on a scary length of cobbled together scaffold poles for 10m and a long wire for 80m.

Damn rotator would always play up and get stuck,

I miss go old valve amps and Proper coax, none of this 7mm crap.

I always lusted after a yeasu 1000mp


Any way time to wake up, sorry back on topic soldering is an essential skill in the mr fix it bag of tools. Can pull your self out of many problems.

 

[Marvo]

I also miss my radio days. I still have a few rigs that I didn't get rid of in the attic but nothing set up at the moment although I still do repairs for other enthusiasts from time to time.

Sweet! You never know we could have a QSO one day!

It might be a while but eventually when I cobble a rig together I'll let everyone know.

 

[Hundleton1]

I'd love to fire up a rig again and slam a few hundred watts of SSB down some wire however would most likely start getting complaints that I'm interfering with their washing machine or fridge knowing the amount of electronics in them these days.

You only had TV and radio to mess with before, these days you could set some one air bag off

 

[RWJ]

I'd love to fire up a rig again and slam a few hundred watts of SSB down some wire however would most likely start getting complaints that I'm interfering with their washing machine or fridge knowing the amount of electronics in them these days.

You only had TV and radio to mess with before, these days you could set some one air bag off

X4RWJ returning... (not my real callsign)

At my last house I managed to get a mounting pole up (no antennas) and received a letter from the Neighbourhood watch stating I was causing TVI. I think my timing was poor due to the fact it coincided with them working on Tacolneston - Our local TV tx.

Anyway apologies to Jonwade for hijacking his thread and turning it in to a Ham discussion.

 

[jonwade]

No worries, I enjoyed reading your memories of Ham etc. While in the local electrical store (Maplin, Chelmsford) I saw some radio stuff and did think that this would make a fun project with the kids - especially as we live in the "birthplace of radio".

But let's see if I can connect a couple of wires together first!

 

[davethsparky]

My RCA plugs came with some "audio grade solder" -

I believe that is a bull**** to baffle the punters term which roughly translates as snake oil!

I've terminated countless XLR panels and al manner of sound cables for theatres and that kind of things and never used anything other than 60/40 solder, and nor has anyone else I know in the industry.
The vast majority of installed speaker cables in these places is good old PVC singles, its only the damned fool amateurs that get fooled by the fancy million pound cables for their little hi-fi's

 

[jonwade]

Well, it came with the plugs. Maybe it is 60/40

 

[davethsparky]

Surely they wouldn't sell regular 60/40 as being something special? Lol

Best one I've ever come across is fibre optic cables with gold plated connectors, how do people not see the con?

 

[Guest111]

the only issue with solder is it's diameter,I have a large roll that's about 2mm and a smaller roll of really fine stuff,great for smaller contacts pcbs etc.Oxygen free cable makes me laugh, what do you have to do keep it in a vacuum even if they produce it in a zero oxygen environment everything absorbs some sooner or later,

 

[Guest111]

Surely they wouldn't sell regular 60/40 as being something special? Lol

Best one I've ever come across is fibre optic cables with gold plated connectors, how do people not see the con?

or they sell you a £25 dvd player and then say it'll be a lot better if you spend £30 on gold plated leads lol

 

[jonwade]

Yeah, I don't go for all the gold plated, expensive cable stuff either. I just ordered a package of cables and plugs from an ebay store and the solder came with it.

Just dug it out the bag, and this it what the label says:

Audio Grade Solder
4% silver
0.7mm / 22 SWG
lead free
2.2% flux
30cm

 

[telectrix]

don't know what all this fuss is about lead free solder. it's not as if you're going to let your kids eat it, is it?

 

[jonwade]

Um ..... they do sometimes chew the cables if I forget to feed them.

 

[telectrix]

i always said that kids were rats.

just remember, kids are for life, not just for benefits.

 

[gnuuser]

don't know what all this fuss is about lead free solder. it's not as if you're going to let your kids eat it, is it?

actually its not about kids eating it.
lead free solder is to protect you from inhaling lead fumes
its highly recommended to wear a respirator if you are still using 60/40
with the addition of silver it increases the conductivity just a bit but it has a slightly higher melting point