Upcoming NGD and Beginning of Project thread - Blacktop HH Strat

[marnold***]

Your wire stripper is far better than mine. I just use the cutting part on my needle nose pliers. As far as soldering quality goes, notice I am careful not to post many pictures of my work here The only thing I ever had trouble with was getting the claw on my Floyd hot enough to solder the ground to it. I also ended up sanding it a bit to get a better surface to solder to. All I needed was "Yakkity Sax" playing in the background when I was doing that to complete the experience. It wasn't funny then, but it is kinda now.

[sunvalleylaw]

Your wire stripper is far better than mine. I just use the cutting part on my needle nose pliers. As far as soldering quality goes, notice I am careful not to post many pictures of my work here The only thing I ever had trouble with was getting the claw on my Floyd hot enough to solder the ground to it. I also ended up sanding it a bit to get a better surface to solder to. All I needed was "Yakkity Sax" playing in the background when I was doing that to complete the experience. It wasn't funny then, but it is kinda now.

I was trying that, but kept cutting the wires. My current stripper is too large for the wires. To get the job done, I ended up heating up the plastic with flame. (read lit it on fire) then blew it out and pulled it over with gloved hands. I attempted not to breathe while doing this.

[duhvoodooman***]

...The only thing I ever had trouble with was getting the claw on my Floyd hot enough to solder the ground to it. I also ended up sanding it a bit to get a better surface to solder to.

This is a common problem. The issue is that the thermal mass of something as large as a trem claw, or even the back of a control pot, is enough that a small iron tip of the kind generally used for wiring work just can't transfer an adequate amount of heat quickly enough to get the substrate above the melting point of the solder. Many people think that the iron itself doesn't have enough power, but that's rarely the problem. The solution is to get a second, larger tip for the iron. See photo attachment below--my wiring/pedal work tip is attached to the iron on the right side, and the larger tip I use for pot grounding, amp work, and soldering to larger substrates is on the left. Its about twice as wide at the tip, but the mass difference is much higher, probably 4 - 5x the small tip. Makes a huge difference. It also helps to use a chisel-style tip--this type will give more surface area contact than a curved conical tip, so quicker heat transfer. And, of course, all of this assumes that you keep your iron's tip CLEAN & TINNED!

Sanding or otherwise roughing up the surface is also a good idea. It doesn't help the thermal mass issue, but it often improves the adhesion of the solder to the substrate surface. A lot of these parts will have a coating of one sort or another that interferes with adhesion--I've seen it cause molten solder to actually bead up on the part surface like a raindrop on a freshly waxed car. But scuff it up with some fine sandpaper and the solder flows and adheres normally.

solder_iron_tips.jpg