[Boatanchors] Solder Kester 88

[David C. Hallam]

Copperweld wire comes with varying amounts of steel in the core.  The 
current process of making Copperweld wire is to roll bond two strips of 
OF copper to a steel wire core and then drawing to size.  There are 
different carbon content steels used for different tensile properties of 
wire as well as a fully annealed low carbon steel Copperweld wire.  The 
conductivity can be varied by changing the thickness of the copper cladding.

The annealed LC Copperweld wire has long been used to make lead wire for 
resistors, capacitors, etc.

The old process to make Copperweld wire was to pour molten copper into a 
mold containing a steel billet.  This bimetallic billet was first hot 
rolled to rod and then cold drawn to wire.

David
KW4DH

On 9/13/2011 4:21 PM, rbethman wrote:
> Richard, Those folks at HRO are also bent on selling 100 foot rolls of
> RG-8 and 100 foot rolls of RG-213 too!  All nice and pretty with fat
> price tags and connectors factory attached with heatshrink over them.
>
> The braided junk that they sell will stretch for as long as it takes to
> work harden and become brittle.
>
> The ONLY way I've succeeded in making the Copperweld antenna wire get
> "brittle" is to bend it back and forth in a short span some ridiculous
> number of times!
>
> It doesn't stretch, and I still use it.  It has that brown appearance
> like an old penny.  Still solders nicely.
>
> Bob - N0DGN
>
> On 9/13/2011 4:14 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "rbethman"<rbethman at comcast.net>
>> To:<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 1:06 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Solder Kester 88
>>
>>
>>> First, I'm not hunting any.  I've got more Kester 44 around here than
>>> I'm likely to ever use.
>>>
>>> Second, I wouldn't bother with looking for and or buying the 88.  I have
>>> found that hobby shops have a solder that uses a propane or butane flame
>>> with its own liquid flux.
>>>
>>> I've been using one package for over 10 years.  I can solder 1/4" hard
>>> drawn copper to 3/4" diameter Copperweld ground rods with no problem.
>>>
>>> I've also been using it to solder to long ago obtained #12 Copperweld
>>> antenna wire that I got an entire roll of from Army MARS in 1982.  The
>>> roll was heavy enough that it took the driver of the Yellow Freight
>>> truck and myself to take it off the truck and to the front step.
>>>
>>> I'm still making dipoles and the like from it.
>>>
>>> Bob - N0DGN
>>      This brings up something I find curious. The local ham store (HRO)
>> seems to think that stranded wire is the right stuff to make antennas
>> out of. I tried to tell them that it oxidized lots faster than
>> copperweld but was told that copperweld was "brittle" and broke. When
>> did the classic wisdom about antenna wire change? AFAIK the whole idea
>> of copperweld is that it is very strong and, if coated with the right
>> lacquer, is pretty resistant to oxidation.
>>      This goes along with the "trivia" answers on QRZ.com, many are
>> plain wrong and no one seems to edit them.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Richard Knoppow
>> Los Angeles
>> WB6KBL
>> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
>>

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