[BC] Soldering D-sub Pins

[Gregory Muir]

I guess that shows my rigidness to my original learning style and how close 
I am to retirement (this year?).

Yes, crimps are quick.  I wholeheartedly agree with you on that.  And they 
are much easier to put together in the field.  But when I am sitting in my 
lab in the basement, I pull out my old aerospace conventions, grab my coffee 
cup and spend time soldering connectors.

The technique of soldering requires proper iron tip size, temperature and 
placement.  Most of the time you are stuck with an extremely 
high-temperature, oversize iron tip that won't fit in the tight places 
between the fixed contacts.  This causes frustration and pain when trying to 
keep from either creating continuous solder bridges or connector meltdown. 
I can understand your point.

My approach?  I use a Metcal RF heated iron with appropriate tip and an 
anti-wicking tool (looks like a tweezer with a collar at the tip) to prevent 
the solder from wicking up the wire and making it stiff..  It also helps 
prevent low-temperature insulations from shrinking back as you apply heat. 
If the application calls for it, I will also use a resistance soldering iron 
(that's a throwback from when the government required resistance soldered 
connections in their space hardware and can be difficult to master).  I even 
apply shrink tube over each wire before soldering it in the contact.  Then 
it is either heat gun or infrared heat for shrinking the tube.  The IR 
approach is nice because it normally doesn't heat the wire insulation.

As for work holding devices, I have fabricated a small array of vise-like 
items that can be used to keep things still no matter where you are working.

It drives my colleagues nuts when I work like this but I have watched them 
improve their soldering skills immensely over time.

Greg

(and... no, I don't use oxygen-free wire!)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jerry Mathis" <thebeaver32 at gmail.com>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 1:21 PM
Subject: Re: [BC] Soldering D-sub Pins


> I MUCH prefer crimping over solder. It takes a least 4 hands to do a 
> proper
> D-sub solder connection. 1 to hold the connector, one to hold the wire(s),
> one to use the soldering iron, and one to use the solder. I have yet to do
> solder connections on a D-sub connector without getting at least ONE 
> solder
> bridge you have to remove. With crimp, I crimp it and stick in it. Done.
> Period.
>