Any tips for soldering motor & ESC wires to 8mm Castle connectors ?

[properchopper]

Here is a great iron for the price i have 2 of them. its a Hakko 936 knock off

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...h_US_Plug.html


Jason Sims

Thanks Jason. Just put an e-mail alert on it (it's BO'd)

[properchopper]

http://www.circuitrework.com/guides/7-1-1.shtml

http://www.digikey.com/Web%20Export/Supplier%20Content/OKIMetcal_389/PDF/OKI_HandSolderingwithLead-FreeAlloys.pdf?redirected=1

http://www.qsl.net/n9zia/solder.html

But at the end of the day use what works for you.
I use a el cheapo Radio Shack dual wattage unit (20/40 watt) on everything including 8mm connectors and 8ga wire without any issues whatsoever.

D.

Sir, Duly noted, BUT will an iron be better than a torch in this situation ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9wyYJJ-XSQ

[bruceisla]

Big Iron

FWIW, this is what I use and I do not consider it overkill by any means. It's 13" long. It's 110 watts on 115vac with a 3/8" wide chisel point tip. I heat it at least 15 minutes before use, clean it carefully, and re-tin it for each connector. If I had a 200 watt I would use it. I use a board with a hole in it to hold the connector and a kevlar glove for the wire. I use paste resin flux and resin-core solder. Both the tip of the wire and the connector need to be tinned and BOTH need to have the solder melted at the time they are joined .... and the wire needs to be held perfectly still until the solder is hard .... about a minute. Without the glove, I can't hold the wire still for that length of time. If the wire moves, it's a guaranteed cold joint and you need to start over.

[Doug Smock]

Sir, Duly noted, BUT will an iron be better than a torch in this situation ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9wyYJJ-XSQ

LOL No sir, not in that situation.

[Basstronics]

After having two desoldering bullets Ive done everything with the plumbing silver solder.

Its mostly tin with a small percentage of silver and some other alloys. You will notice it is much harder to unroll off the spool or coil.

I also work with a liquid flux, not that paste junk. I usually tin my large bullets with an iron- just enough to coat the inside of the cup. I then let it cool and hit it with a wire brush. I also tin the wires same fashion and again clean with wire brush. Then outside with a torch and cinder block. I heat the bullets, fill the cup with solder and immediately immerse the wire into the molten solder. I lift the wire in and out 3-6 times until the wires hot and all the solder is wet. Put the wire into the cup and pull it against a wall and remove heat holding until solid.

After it cools I hit it with a wire brush to rid all off the flux I can.

[Rumdog]

Yup. Just use 5.5's. easy fix.

[Cooper]

I think u guys are over complicating soldering. You don't need a huge torch or super big watt iron.
Always tin the wire. Easiest is flux core solder. Novac makes a good gauge flux core silver solder for using on bullets. Always have a clean tip and re-tin frequently. No reason to "let things cool". Kinda defeats the purpose of heating to desired flowing temp of solder. Good idea to clean excess flux off wire after tinned. Yes 8mm connectors will take alot of solder to fill using smaller gauge wires. Best to wrap tinfoil around bullet (for the ones that have holes in sides) and have a wood block with hole for bullet. (not metal as it will rob heat and just make it take longer and make u think u need a bigger iron. Put the tinned wire in the bullet in the wood hole wrapped in foil. Heat the bullet with iron, add solder, keep adding solder. As the bullet filles the tinned wire will be heated also. The key is to be able to see the difference between liquid solder (up to temp) and cold solder. Once you see the wire solder flowing fill the bullet up to top, almost overflowing, as you remove iron and heat the solder will appear to shrink slightly leaving you with a nice convex cone of solder with a wire sticking out. And on most wires after you tin them just hold tip with pliers and pull wire casing away. When you are done just pull wire casing back down and you'll have a nice bullet solder connection. If it take over minuent to get solder flowing then something is wrong

[Cooper]

Oh and I understand abou why you are using 8mm bullets with smaller wire. I converted almost all my big lipos to 8mm and all boats and cars to 8 's just for ease of use

[1945dave]

Allow me to also state the obvious. I too plan on converting to 8 mm bullets soon. However, if you are using them on 10 gage wires you gain very little over 5.5 mm connectors. Reason being 10 gage wires are about 3 mm in diameter. You can actually place two 10 gage wires into one 8 mm bullet connector and still have room left over. I believe 8 mm connectors call for 8 gage wire. With that said the issue about soldering irons and small torches is the fact that the torch can give the illusion that everything is hot enough rather quickly so you never get the wire hot enough to be part of the blending in the joint, (cold joint). Using a iron takes longer to heat everything and the heat tends to distribute more evenly to both the bullet and the wire. This results in a better solder joint. There are some great you tube videos showing what some guys do that are above the norm to make first class solder joints. My favorite is the guy that wraps by hand the end of the stripped wire by hand with strans of silver wire to build up the diameter closer to the bullet opening and also to bind together the wire strans so they do not frey. Tinning properly is not optional.

Dave

[Shooter]

Good thread. Glad I read this before trying my larger (HobbyKing type) 8mm bullets. I used a torch on the first few, but then found an 80watt iron to be adequate.

SAM_0918.jpg

[crrcboatz]

Why not use this for preparing the wire leads?http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/21-3511
My father was an electronics person until his death and he swore by these. I have some of his equipment now but let the pot go to my brother . Believe I will order this as it will for sure make preparation of the wire leads a snap. Also will be ordering this iron http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/96-2430. I have his old 100watt weller but it is heavy and not as friendly as I would like.

[keithbradley]

This thread brings something up that I have noticed a lot lately. I run up to 300A+ on 5.5mm bullets, and I've NEVER had a problem with them getting hot, or coming un-soldered. I see post after post from guys running 5.5s, 6.5s etc. on spec type setups that are having problems with the bullets getting hot. I think there are A LOT of poor solder joints out there. The only GOOD solder joint is one where one side is heated enough to completely liquify the solder on the other side. Heating a bullet with a torch and then dipping the wire in will never give you a good joint, unless you actually hold the torch there long enough to watch the solder melt off of the wire and liquify in the connector. If this is not done, the cold solder coming in drops the temp of the solder in the area that it's at, forming a barrier that is too thin to depend on in a high current setup.

I use a 450w soldering gun. I can't imagine using a small iron for the amount of soldering I do (maybe 1000 connectors a year). A 40-80W iron doesn't cut it for me. There are many occasions when an iron will not have enough power to heat the needed area.

[detox]

Your connectors may be bad quality (small contact area inside) creating heat insted of allowing voltage/amps to flow. I would try some snug fitting Castle 6.5 connectors. You can cut open one side using Dremel to make these work with 8mm wire. I flux then tin both the wire and connector beforesoldering together. Soldering iron works good for me if I keep the tip cleaned and tinned. A small drip of solder hanging from tip of iron will transfer heat very quickly into both the wire and connector. I grip the connector using Visegrip Pliars laying flat on wood board (this frees up one hand to let both hands solder and hold wire)

[properchopper]

Here is a great iron for the price i have 2 of them. its a Hakko 936 knock off

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...h_US_Plug.html


Jason Sims

Jason,

Took your advice. Got the iron (finally came in to the USA warehouse). $15.56. Bought a pack of tips for @ $10 on e-bay- the one supplied is a needle tip. Works great. Thanks for the recommendation

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[line6]

cool tony, ya there outta stock a lot. pm the link to the tips when you can if the guy has more.

Jason Sims