[Elecraft] The old Toroid saga

[Ron]

Hi,
     With monotonous regularity, the old toroid stripping rears its head 
pretty much every year, and it is understandable with new guys/gals 
becoming Elecraft kit owners all the time and haven't had the advantage of 
past posts on the subject, but wouldn't it be better if someone with the 
skills made a VIDEO CLIP of the process with a "voice over" to show just 
how EASY the process is given the right procedure?
If it was posted to (say) the Elecraft site, it would save a lot of posts 
expounding different, and sometimes "odd" (and unnecessarily dangerous) 
ways of doing the same thing.
The method outlined in the Elecraft Manuals is very good at explaining it, 
but some people don't seem to grasp the need for a bit more heat and the 
application of a bit more solder to 'wet" the blob when the wire starts to 
smoke. A picture is worth a thousand words ( especially moving pictures)
I have repaired a K2 where the builder used a match (or some other smoky 
flame) to strip the leads with ludicrous results.....probably a 90% dry 
joint effort and the sides of the toroids all "frazzled and black....ugh....
Usually the one basic tool a builder has is all that is needed to strip the 
varnish (the soldering iron), so any video clip would be best just showing 
that application, but perhaps adding that some solder suckers or solder 
pots can be used if they are available.
For myself, I have an iron that has interchangeable tips, so I pre-wind a 
run of toroids and then put the biggest tip in and use a heavier grade of 
solder to do the "wetting". The job is done in seconds, just because the 
HEAT is available...
Maybe my suggestion has already been done, but whether or not that is so, I 
still think this would be a good idea. Unfortunately I don't have the "know 
how" to make and post such a video clip, but I suspect it would be well 
received by new builders?
73......Ron ZL1TW 


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