I fail at soldering :-(

[Kirothak]

started to try my first mod and wow do i suck at soldering, I have never soldered before, but have been trying to learn the past few weeks, and soldering 2 wires together is ez enough,

But i cant for the life of me solder the - connection to my 510 battery connector. most vids i have seen are about soldering wire to wire, or via holes in a circuit board, but how do you go about soldering wire to a slab of metal?

any advice? preferable with pics?

 

[harpo]

First tin the wire (place exposed conductor in flux, heat it up and put solder on it). Second put a little flux on the battery connector and place the tin wire on/in the connector, heat it up and place some solder on it. Now your done.

Sorry don't have any pictures.

 

[karmatized]

tin the wire and the spot you want to connect to, Then it just takes a tap of the soldering iron to connect the 2 sections of solder, il see i can add another better made video to the how to solder section

 

[MacArthurBug]

No advice: I just sympathize. I have to re-solder some of my connectors today.

 

[Kirothak]

tining the wire is ez enough, but i cant get the damn connector to tin, even while using flux paste on it :-(

Edit: even tried sanding the connector with a dremmil to be absolutely sure its clean, still can get it to tin, this realy cant be this hard i must be missing something

 

[ezmoose]

Try pre-tinning the connector and wire, then, reheat the solder on the connector to melting and immediately place the pre-tinned wire on the connector and solder it in place. When I try to solder onto a cold connector, it’s always frustrating; those connectors make good heat sinks and that ain't good! lol

 

[scheherezade]

Soldering is just a matter of practice, but look at it this way, its a very handy skill to have once you get it down. Good Luck!

 

[ezmoose]

tining the wire is ez enough, but i cant get the damn connector to tin, even while using flux paste on it :-(

Try using a small wire brush or steel wool to clean any tarnish off of the connector where you are attempting to solder, then flush it clean with alcohol (preferably 100 or 90 percent pure alcohol). Even the oil from your fingers, if you touch the connector where you want to solder, can be problematic. I even clean the solder with alcohol sometimes; you would be surprised how much oxidized crud can build-up on older solder!

 

[Kirothak]

i am beginning to think my cheap $4madvapes soldering iron is just not up to the task, i can't get my + wire soldered to some 1/16 copper tube either :-(

I didn't expect much out of a $4 iron and it does small wires fine but nothing eles. or i suck

 

[ezmoose]

I use a 40 watt pencil iron; works fine.

 

[youfillintheblank]

do you have a wet sponge to clean your iron tip? Not the cellulose sponges, but the denser kind. if your tip is dirty and black it won't transfer heat as well. wipe it on a wet sponge, or use tip cleaner if you can find it. the tip should be shiny when you use it, you might have to clean it every 10 seconds. if the iron is 25w or less it probably just isn't up to the task. 35-40w are better.

 

[Dudeman]

I have a "cheap" soldering iron as well. But mines about 4 years old. You need to build up some serious heat on the connector for a good connection. I pop the positive contact out and take out the rubber isolator so it doesn't melt (also makes it easier to solder the wire to it). Then hold my fully heated soldering iron to the connector for about a good 5 minutes before tinning the connector. Then it can still take a minute or 2 of heat transfer to get it hot enough to connect the wire in a way I'm hapy with.

Note: to get the positive contact back in easily, drip a drop of e-juice in there 1st.

 

[Kirothak]

yes i use a sponge and copper mesh, and flux on the tip (when i first got the iron i could NOT get it to tin, until i got flux paste

 

[Kirothak]

did pop out the + stud and spacer.

wait... 5 mins!!! holy thats a long time, i figured if it took more then 30 secs i was doing it wrong rofl.

its a 30w iron btw so may try a 40

 

[5cardstud]

Them conectors are hard to solder, getting down into that tiny space. When I have to much trouble I take my Dremmel and make a little slot on the side (collar) of the connector for access. They don't need that big of a collar anyway and in fact I've bought some with shorter collars. Then do as the other folks here mentioned about tinning first. Pulling the center for me was to much trouble putting it back in. Sometimes I get it right off other times I've ruined the insulator. It depends on the brand.

 

[martha1014]

It seems to me that mods being sold using souldering would not be as reliable as those who have no wires or souldering. The tiny wires can break easy where the other connectors are metal to metal. I realize some of the people making home made mods do not have the technology to use connectors. The only mods that I will buy do not have souldering.

 

[karmatized]

actually yeah thats a good point, keep the tip of the iron clean and tinned otherwise it wont get as hot. Also when you plug it in and allow it to heat, let it sit for a extra 5 mins or so heating up. I have seen that also people trying to use a iron that hasnt warmed up

 

[me who]

I'm using a 23 watt Weller pencil iron, I plug it in and allow it to preheat for about 10 mins. prior to attempted use. Once the irons good and hot, each joint take no more than 5 to 20 seconds. I used the thin electronics solder from radio shack. As others have mentioned if your iron has black carbon on it; while hot quickly wipe the tip with a moist paper towel or sponge.

 

[me who]

actually yeah thats a good point, keep the tip of the iron clean and tinned otherwise it wont get as hot. Also when you plug it in and allow it to heat, let it sit for a extra 5 mins or so heating up. I have seen that also people trying to use a iron that hasnt warmed up

Whoops I didn't see your post, but yep I think the irons not hot enough.

 

[candre23]

allow it to preheat for about 10 mins

My guess is that this is the real problem here. A 30W iron just takes a while to get up to temperature. I have a Weller digital solder station, and at 800 degrees it only takes a few sec to solder to an atty connector. You just need to wait for your iron to get that hot.