Soldering & Cable Maintenance

[Edrick]

Well I want to get more into repairing, creating, and making my own cables. I have a basic radio shack two heat level solder iron, and some solder. So next I want to practice my skills and figure out what other supplies I should get. So for you guys who repair, maintain and make what does your "soldering kit" consist of. Also where's a good place to buy cables and ends?

 

[Footer]

MCM electonics is a good one stop stop for all things solder. You can buy most connectors there as well.

First.... buy a better solding iron if you are going to be doing this a lot. The weller WES51 is my favorite low cost iron.

Amazon.com: Weller WES51 Analog Soldering Station, Power Unit, Soldering Pencil, Stand and Sponge: Home Improvement

As for other things....

A solder pot is not a bad thing to have. A small vice is also not a bad investment.

For me though... I have a handful of things in my bag to solder with...
A large spring clip to hold odd connectors or whatever else I need. Useful when tinning cable.

.

A double gang box with both a male and female XLR, both 5pin and 3pin, a 1/4" connector, and an RCA connector mounted in it. It has led in it to keep it down. I use this to hold connectors in place while I work on them.

Solder and flux

Desoldering bubble.

 

[avkid]

If you're serious you'll need a temperature controlled soldering station.

Kit:
Rosin Core electrical solder
solder sucker
desoldering braid/ flux
straight and offset tweezers
soldering clamp

 

[Edrick]

I'm hoping to one day get an actually temperature controlled unit. However as of now the amount of jobs I'll be doing wont be enough to justify the cost as of yet (also don't have the funds). But once I do get the money I'll defiantly be purchasing one. What should I expect to say pay for a bag of Whirlwind XLR connectors or is there really any benefit to using those over some knock off?

 

[avkid]

If you want XLR connectors I suggest you look here:
Audiopile Pro Audio - XLR Cord Ends

 

[Edrick]

I actually found some on this site XLR Connectors paid 1.95 compared to 3.50 for the same connector I believe at least.

 

[museav]

A double gang box with both a male and female XLR, both 5pin and 3pin, a 1/4" connector, and an RCA connector mounted in it. It has led in it to keep it down. I use this to hold connectors in place while I work on them.

I've seen a similar arrangement but simply using a 2x4 with holes drilled in it to mount the connectors with wood screws (and adding a 6 pin XLR if you are doing two channel intercom).

A good stripper (cable, not the other kind) is always useful.

You might also want to consider a heat gun and some heat shrink, not necessarily for soldering but for serving jacket ends and ground conductors for screw terminal connectors. It is fairly common to either cover the exposed portion of the ground conductor with tubing if it is terminated or to bend it back along the cable and cover it with heat shrink if it is not used. Also good for covering butt splices, inline solder splices, spade lugs to make them a bit cleaner and less susceptible to corrosion (you can use clear heat shrink if you want to be able to visually verify the actual connection).

 

[derekleffew]

Though not essential, a PanaVise is very nice, for holding the connector and freeing up a hand.

PanaVise Products, Inc.

 

[erosing]

Does no one else carry a metal file or sand paper to clean their iron's tip?

 

[eternalfire1244]

that is in my soldering kit- I have a small bastard file that does the trick quite nicely. I am sure I have sandpaper as well somewhere in there too.

 

[dramatech]

A pretty good soldering iron cleaner, is a steel scrubbing pad in an empty tunafish can.

 

[fredthe]

Does no one else carry a metal file or sand paper to clean their iron's tip?

What do you do with your iron that you'd need this? A damp sponge has kept my tip in good shape for years.
If you need to get that aggressive with a tip, it probably should be replaced.

-Fred

 

[Edrick]

Well luckily today after talking to one of the TV Studio guys he gave me some XLR Ends and a solder sucker and another thing of solder so I can practice with and once I bring in some stuff to show him that I can do it he's going to let me work on repairing cables for them and I get money too since I'm work study.

 

[derekleffew]

Edrick, is it now? One of the best exercises is to make yourself what former CB member, kwotipka, calls an audio "crab."

From My Yellow Box Kris’s Thoughts :

My audio “crab”. This thing continues to save my rear end and I use it on just about every show. This thing is nothing more than 2 XLR males, 2 XLR females, and a 1/4″ TRS male in parallel. So it can be a M-M adapter, F-F adapter, F-MM or M-FF “Y” cable, or a 1/4" to XLR adapter. These are very easy to make and I recommend that everyone have one.

I second the sentiment that all I've ever needed to clean an iron's tip is a moistened sponge. Clean early and clean often! Also, be sure to use proper PPE, including where necessary a fume exhaust: Mounting a fan for solder fumes exhaust. There are lots of good "how to solder" videos on YouTube.

 

[Edrick]

My actual name has always been Edrick Ed and Rick so Ricky is my nick name / name from childhood however in college people mostly call me Edrick. Any who I'll look into making one of those. I just need to get my self some extra cable.

 

[RichMoore]

The "third hand tool" is a must have.


I'm not able to transfer an image of the tool....google it.

.....alligator clips on a stand with a magnifying glass.....

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Useful thread is useful.

 

[avkid]

The "third hand tool" is a must have.

 

[howlingwolf487]

I bought this soldering station from here and it has been fantastic. I have used it extensively and have nothing but good things to say about it.

Make sure to buy a conical tip and a large, chisel tip. Buy some coarse steel wool for roughing up the tip occasionally if there's oxidation. Oh, and don't use spit to moisten the sponge - it stinks!