[Elecraft] stripping insulation from enamel wires

[Victor Rosenthal 4X6GP]

Note that there is enameled wire that can't be stripped this way. The 
enamel is heat-resistant. Of course if you are using the wire that comes 
with Elecraft kits, you shouldn't have this problem.

What I do is put a blob of solder on the tip of the iron. Then, I hole 
the END of the wire, which of course has no enamel on it, against the 
tip. That transmits heat into the copper, starting the process. Then I 
pass the wire through the blob slowly and watch the enamel boil off.

Afterwards I scrape lightly with a knife to remove flux and burned enamel.

This works fine with the iron set to 750 degrees f. If you aren't 
succeeding with an iron even hotter, I would suspect that you have the 
wrong kind of enameled wire.

Incidentally, I use a second iron with an old tip for this. Having the 
blob of solder with flux boiling on it for a long time tends to erode 
the tip.

73,
Victor, 4X6GP
Rehovot, Israel
Formerly K2VCO
CWops no. 5
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/
On 12/06/2020 17:02, Robert G Strickland via Elecraft wrote:
> Here's an old problem that I've never solved: how to strip the enamel 
> insulation from wires for winding toroids.
> 
> The instruction say:
> -dip in a solder pot which I don't have
> -use a soldering iron to, presumably, burn the insulation off which has 
> never worked for me.
> 
> Leaving soldering pots aside, the hot iron approach has never burned off 
> any insulation even with tip temp's hovering around 1000F. Just doesn't 
> happen. Maybe it's the soldering iron, maybe my method, but whichever, 
> the enamel insulation just sits there. I end up using a file to scrape 
> off the insulation which is tough on the wires and hard to predict when 
> enough is enough. Any insightful hints? Thanks much.
> 
> ...robert
>