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aberdeen-music

Soldering


politikjoe

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Heat the connection and apply solder to it. Heat the wire and apply solder to it as well. Heat the connector again (NOT the solder on the connector) and when the solder liquifies put the 'tinned' end into the solder. Remove the soldering iron and hold the wire steady until the solder solidifys. DO NOT blow on the solder. Wait for it to cool down on it's own. You can see the solder change from shiny to a duller grey when this happens.

Try not to get solder on the tip of your iron as well, if you do, use a damp sponge to wipe the tip.

And if your not sure how much solder to use, look at it before you remove the old connections. It'll give you a rough guide.

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if you know nothing at all, try and get someone who knows how to solder to show you first so you can get an idea

i would also have a look on the net for any proper guides to soldering properly

and i would have a practise on something esle before attempting the guitar, rip out the old pots and have a shot wiring them together to get the idea of how to solder, then if you feel you can do it, go on the the real stuff

if you try and find you solder like you are using your feet not hands, then i would get someone else to do it, either a friend who will do it or pay a bit of cash to get a shop or someone to do it for you

David

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There are about 1000 do's and dont's with soldering....

But the most important when working on electrical components is...

dont over heat the electrical component (pot, pickup etc) the less time the iron remains on the component the better....I would reccomend an iron of 25 watts minimum, use good quality fluxed solder and get a little pot of flux as well. the size of the of the soldering "bit" is important as well, if the item you intend soldering has a fair mass like a pot, then quite a large bit is required....about the size of a large flat screwdriver is about right...the reason for that is, the greater the mass of the bit, the more heat it will retain and transfer quickly to the item being soldered.

This would be my method of soldering a pickup wire to a pot.

Preparation....If the pot has been used before try and remove as much of the old solder as possible, if thats not possible dont just solder on top of the old join, attach the wire to a clean piece of the pot....this will help prevent dry solder joints. Apply the hot iron to the pot, for three of four seconds and apply some of the fluxed solder, it should run freely onto the pot right away, remove the iron. Bare a short piece of the pickup wire, loosly twist the wires, hold the wire in the jaws of a vice and apply the hot iron, almost immediatly apply the solder which should melt on the exposed wire, remove the iron. That is the components tinned. Placed the wire on the tinned area of the pot, gently press the hot iron to the wire, you will feel the tip of the iron move as the solder on the wire melts, hold it there for another second or two and remove the iron but holding the wire in place for a few seconds until the solder solidifies ... job done.

One point about soundians post....its important that the tip of the iron is also tinned, if it looks dirty then wipe it on a damp sponge (when its hot)

G...

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