Andy - Those gun-style irons will be a challenge for what you are doing. If you are ever near Rochester, I could loan you a soldering station I have that is perfect for this type of work. I can also show you some techniques for making the joints quickly and consistently. One thing that can help is to tin the wire (get solder to flow onto/into the wire), then try heating the joint. -- Mike ________________________________ From: Nick Kemp <nkemp@xxxxxxxx> To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Mon, August 27, 2012 3:33:09 PM Subject: Re: [DML] Fuse box replacement Andy, Soldering is part art and part science. It is always difficult to solder "flying" wires because you can't get a solid contact between the iron and the wire and thus you don't get good heat transfer. If you could get something to put under the connection so that you can push against it while heating up the connection it will heat up faster. Don't use metal because it will soak up too much heat. Use something like wood or fiberglass sheets (like circuit boards) Be careful melting the solder on the iron and not on the wire. It can result in cold solders. A cold solder will be dull and does not show good wicking. I find the best spot with problematic joints is that space between the iron and the wire. The wire is often hot enough to take/wick the solder for a good connection. Don't flow too much solder. It makes the wires rigid and the weak point becomes the point where there is no solder (not the connection). This is especially true for high vibration connections. [It is a problem encountered by a few home built airplanes.] For that matter, many believe that a good crimp connection without solder is better than a good connection with solder. And ALWAYS use rosin core solder. Many have tried to use plain solder (usually plumbing solder) and it will not take without using rosin with it. This is true for wiring, circuit boards and plumbing. But I suspect you already knew that. See you at the Orchard. Nick soma576 wrote , ----On 8/27/2012 2:52 PM ---------------------------: > > Hey all, > > 11596 is getting a new fuse box. I've had a few of the critical fuses > in jumpers for well over a decade. I always hated messing around in my > electrical compartment for fear of knocking something loose and > causing Bad Things. > > I got the new fuse box kit from DMCMW and a proper barrel crimper. Not > only am I crimping everything perfectly but I'm also soldering the > connections. Should be trouble-free for a long time. > > Anyway the kit is coming along nicely but as you can expect it takes a > long time to do right. Took me about 4 hours just to do 7 fuses last > night. After crimping and soldering I'm putting 3/4" of heat shrink > tubing on the connection. > > One thing that baffles me is how long it can take to heat up the > connection so the solder will flow. I'm using a 140 watt gun-style > iron with flat blade tip. Once the tip is hot I can melt the solder on > the tip in less than a second, but it often takes well over a minute > to heat up the connector. It might have something to do with "tinning" > the tip - once I flowed some solder onto the tip, shook it off, then > went right for the connector which took solder in under 3 seconds. > Other times it takes what seems like forever. > > Anyone have any great tips to make this go faster? > > Andy > > ------------------------------------ To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnewsYahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnewsYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: dmcnews-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx dmcnews-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/