[Elecraft] Soldering Power Poles

[EricJ]

Why? Simple. While you were doing all that, a guy with a proper crimper 
would have completed the job, and be sipping his coffee waiting for you 
to complete yours. If you had been in the field at the time, he might 
have finished his coffee, and decided to loan you his crimper.

RC aircraft guys have this argument all the time between soldered Deans 
connectors and APPs. Strip, crimp, insert, done, anywhere, 
professionally. That's my reason.

Eric

On 12/11/2013 12:11 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
>
>> I think cost new less than $50?
>
> Why would I want to spend $50 (plus shipping, of course) for a crimper 
> when the soldering iron I already own works really well? Some of my 
> techniques:
>
> 1) The biggest inserts are the most difficult to use, so I use them 
> only for the #10 wire for which they are designed. I first carefully 
> strip and tin the wire long enough so that the stripped conductor will 
> just fit inside the shell once the pin is inserted. That's because the 
> insulation of a larger cable often does not fit inside the shell. I 
> find that liquid flux applied to the wire before tinning keeps the 
> solder layer thin enough to fit in the insert. I then use the pliers 
> to fold the "wings" over the wire so that, when soldered, it will fit 
> in the shell.  I also use a drop of flux when soldering.
>
> 2) The middle-size insert will handle #12 if carefully stripped and 
> tinned, as above. Again, I use flux for the tinning, and also for 
> soldering to the pin.
>
> 3) I use a lot of the smallest inserts for small diameter cables, like 
> those from small accessories. I strip the conductors long enough that 
> I can fold the stripped part over itself with the folded length just 
> enough to fit in the pin. Again, a drop of flux helps the soldering 
> process.
>
> 4) I use a nice bench vise to hold the cable to which I am soldering, 
> orienting the cable upward so that the pin sits on it, and oriented so 
> that the V+ cable is on the right with the lip facing away from me.
>
> Once the pins are installed, I mate a red and black shell, put the two 
> shells in the vise, then carefully orient the pins and push them in 
> one at a time until the lip latches to the blade in the shell. For 
> smaller cable, I use a little green Xcelite screwdriver to push the 
> pin over the blade.
>
> In general, these techniques work well for almost any connector I need 
> to install, all the way up to PL259s and multipins of various sorts
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
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