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Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: blackbeard on October 22, 2010, 02:05:33 PM

Title: receding wire insulation
Post by: blackbeard on October 22, 2010, 02:05:33 PM: this is really starting to piss me off. the wire i just bought might as well be wrapped in shrink rap! if i turn my iron too high it recedes instantaneous while if i turn my iron lower it recedes just as fast! i don't want to pay for new wire but this is really getting to me. i don't want my board shorting and burning my now rare atmega chips or making me search half an hour for said shorts. any idea how to solder these wires without the insulation shrinking?
Title: Re: receding wire insulation
Post by: Metal Slug 2 on October 22, 2010, 02:49:22 PM: Try heat sinking (http://www.robotshop.com/elenco-soldering-heatsink.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=jos) the wire?
Or why not just add some extra shrink wrap around the exposed bit?
Title: Re: receding wire insulation
Post by: blackbeard on October 22, 2010, 06:28:36 PM: Quote from: Metal Slug 2 on October 22, 2010, 02:49:22 PM
Try heat sinking (http://www.robotshop.com/elenco-soldering-heatsink.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=jos) the wire?
Or why not just add some extra shrink wrap around the exposed bit?

i'm not sure how i would do that without leaving a big gap. as for heat shrinking it it's pretty thin stuff and it's all jammed close together so i don't think that would work
Title: Re: receding wire insulation
Post by: madsci1016 on October 22, 2010, 09:22:14 PM: you could just heat shrink over the part that becomes exposed as you solder.
Title: Re: receding wire insulation
Post by: Soeren on October 22, 2010, 11:59:00 PM: Hi,

Either you go too hot, or you have been very unlucky with the wire. I had such wire a long time ago and I binned the lot and bought some new stuff - life's too short for bad wire.
Alas, if you wanna keep the annoyance factor up in what should be relaxation, you could use a bit of hot glue to keep things from shorting as an emergency solution (or RTV silicone, if it has to see temperatures below freezing).
Title: Re: receding wire insulation
Post by: photomark on October 23, 2010, 02:34:40 AM: I used to do some very high voltage work and on some PCBs if we had even 1mm of copper showing on the wire they would not get approved, all we did was place a piece of heat-shrink on the wire before it is inserted into the hole, after soldering it on ( with a soldering iron you could weld with ) the copper wire would be hot enough to melt the heat-shrink on its own and you got a very neat looking connection .