[Elecraft] To Blob or not to Blob... Who asked that question?

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

If you manage to heat the copper wire instead of just the enamel, it will
strip more quickly. That's why a lot of "blobbers" start with the cut end of
the wire where the copper is exposed and work up towards the core. 

But, as Jerry points out, enough heat will do it any old way! Me? I have a
Weller D-500 260 watt soldering gun. Built a Viking Ranger with it in '54,
built a lot of other rigs with it afterwards, and nowadays find it
invaluable for putting an SO-239 connector on large coax in a snowstorm,
soldering sheets of copper up into a chassis, or blobbing off the enamel
from coil wire.

That said, in the K2 I found that the enamel stripped very easily without
heat. I used a semi-sharp edge (the metal edge of my work table) to pull the
wire across. The enamel popped loose and came off in almost one piece,
leaving clean copper behind ready to tin. I've also used the BACK of an
X-acto knife blade (not the sharp edge which would work, but it is way to
easy to 'nick' the wire with that sharp of an edge). Draw it along the
enamel wire with the wire laying on the table, and the enamel just popped
off. 

Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
I use the Hakko 808 for tinning the toroids and wouldn't want to be without
it, results are outstanding...Before I "discovered" the Hakko, I used an
unregulated 60 watt Hexicon iron I have had for years...With all that heat
available, it did a rapid job of tinning the toroids via the "blob"
method...One starts off heating the wire as close to the core as possible
and slowly working out to the tip of the wire as the enamel burns
away...Tinning the toroids was the only thing I used this iron for...Well,
maybe soldering gas tanks...And Heathkits...

Jerry, wa2dkg