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Post by unreg on Apr 30, 2020 11:30:01 GMT -5
Hi all. When attempting to create a star ground, should I wrap all the wires together and then make a solder connection? One of the wires is a bell wire so I just wrapped the other wires around that bell wire. Last night, around 1:30 am, I had all of the star ground wire-ends wrapped together and THEN I made the decision to unclamp and then reclamp the wires. However, I totally didn’t tin that nicely wrapped wire bunch and the wires all separated.  Learned: TIN YOUR WIRES BEFORE ADJUSTING YOUR CLAMP. And: GUITAR WORK INSTEAD OF SLEEP CAN BE PROBLEMATIC.  edit: Did get most of the wires stripped and cut, though. And successfully soldered the new ground volume connection. Much better without a massive hill of solder. |
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Post by frets on Apr 30, 2020 13:27:29 GMT -5
You only solder all the ground wires to the Star ground. Or clamp all the grounds to a Star ground.
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Post by unreg on May 2, 2020 15:00:49 GMT -5
Hmm... last night after failing twice to solder to my sanded ground washer, I have the idea that maybe the solder doesn’t stick to my small wedge tip bc it is a gold/dark-yellow material. The solder easily sticks to my large silver-colored wedge tip. And the end of the small pointed tip is also gold/dark-yellow material. What it that goldish material? Am I right that solder doesn’t stick to that type of material? If so, why is that material on the end of tips packaged with a soldering tool? Guess I need to buy new tips? Also, twisting ground wire-ends together before soldering is a bad idea bc that prevents the wire’s contact with the solder point? <harder to heat up... Is it better to make many different solder connections near each other to make the star ground point? Serious questions; making sure I’m thinking correctly. |
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Post by newey on May 2, 2020 20:36:04 GMT -5
That's what I do, seems to work for me. Twisting more than two wires together is a recipe for grief.
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Post by unreg on May 2, 2020 20:57:33 GMT -5
That's what I do, seems to work for me. Twisting more than two wires together is a recipe for grief. Thank you newey!  Guess I’ll spend time heating up the tips of the 4 ground wire-ends twisted together, separate them and de-tin them, and straighten the wire ends with a pair of pliers. Grief tastes bad. |
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Post by blademaster2 on May 3, 2020 11:19:06 GMT -5
Hmm... last night after failing twice to solder to my sanded ground washer, I have the idea that maybe the solder doesn’t stick to my small wedge tip bc it is a gold/dark-yellow material. The solder easily sticks to my large silver-colored wedge tip. And the end of the small pointed tip is also gold/dark-yellow material. What it that goldish material? Am I right that solder doesn’t stick to that type of material? If so, why is that material on the end of tips packaged with a soldering tool? Guess I need to buy new tips? Also, twisting ground wire-ends together before soldering is a bad idea bc that prevents the wire’s contact with the solder point? <harder to heat up... Is it better to make many different solder connections near each other to make the star ground point? Serious questions; making sure I’m thinking correctly. I, too, am struggling this week with soldering to larger pieces of metal. Many irons cannot maintain the temperature to a melting point for the solder when there is a lot of metal to suck away the heat. If you cannot heat up the part fast enough to melt the solder where needed you end up keeping the tip on the work for too long and the heat then goes everywhere and might damage or melt other parts farther away. Your sanded washer might also need a lot of heat to solder properly. The tips also can degrade due to corrosion from the flux, and they are usually only good when they remain silver with solder on their ends. Once the surface corrodes and flakes off it is usually not possible to get good results. [For the connections to a stereo power amplifier I am rewiring right now, I actually resorted to making connections to a bus bar - the output signal node - by suspending the bus bar (14AWG solid wire) with a clamp, and having my son heat up the metal with a plumber's torch while I applied the solder using my 140W gun. It was awkward, but the fillets were beautiful when I was done. When I installed this into the more constrained heat sink assembly I could not use a torch because of electronic parts nearby, and one iron would not provide enough heat, so I used two irons at the same time and it did the job - barely.] |
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Post by unreg on May 3, 2020 15:04:50 GMT -5
Your sanded washer might also need a lot of heat to solder properly. That’s cool to know, thank you baldemaster2! Don’t think lack of heat is preventing the soldering (do to my iron’s 900 degrees Fahrenheit max)... rather, it’s the 4 or 5 ground wire-ends twisted together that’s causing problems. The washer got so hot that the wood, that it was attached to, underneath, became black in the same location I was applying heat to. After I separate and straighten the wire ends, it should be a much easier job. The tips also can degrade due to corrosion from the flux, and they are usually only good when they remain silver with solder on their ends. Once the surface corrodes and flakes off it is usually not possible to get good results. I’m unsure if you were talking about my gold-colored tips, but they are both brand new... haven’t even used the small pointy one bc of reTrEaD’s wedge tip recommendation. [For the connections to a stereo power amplifier I am rewiring right now, I actually resorted to making connections to a bus bar - the output signal node - by suspending the bus bar (14AWG solid wire) with a clamp, and having my son heat up the metal with a plumber's torch while I applied the solder using my 140W gun. It was awkward, but the fillets were beautiful when I was done. When I installed this into the more constrained heat sink assembly I could not use a torch because of electronic parts nearby, and one iron would not provide enough heat, so I used two irons at the same time and it did the job - barely.] That’s great problem solving! A plumber’s torch! Thank you for sharing; really interesting! |
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Guess I’ll spend time heating up the tips of the 4 ground wire-ends twisted together, separate them and de-tin them, and straighten the wire ends with a pair of pliers. 
