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Best Quality Solder


need4speed

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Phil

I have never looked at any specific brand but the corroded Anderson connector threat relates to a soldered connection for my Disco. My solder was bought from Maplins and was the cheapest they had. I heated the connector up with a blow torch and fed the solder in until the pot was full and then just stuck the cable in until it cooled.

Use mole grips while hot.

Have used the same stuff multiple times on all battery connectors and Anderson connectors and have never failed even when a brain dead friend tried to jump start my cars by connecting the live to the negative, and vise versa, on the dead car. The cables got very hot as he stood looking at it saying he couldn't disconnect because they were too hot. I was very angry to say the least. Those jump cables have never worked since because the cable ends had failed at the solder joint but the solder was still very much in tact as it was the cable that failed. These were 800amp cables.

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Yes I saw that thread Mav.

The thing is I can't afford a GOOD set of hydraulic crimping tools. The reviews of the £30-£60 sets available on eBay have been mixed to say the least... If I could afford the luxury of a set Cembre's then I would probably crimp them.

I know that the crimp versus solder debate will run ad nauseum but unless the cable/connector is in an area where it's being bent/moved all the time, I don't see a thing wrong with soldering.

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Normal 60-40 electrical solder and muchos flux should be fine.

However – you will find that a spool of electrical solder in the required size (so more like plumbing solder thickness, but not actual plumbing solder!), will be quite spendy, maybe £25. So my advice is still spend the £45 on a hydro crimper and practice on a few crimps first.

I arsed up the first crimp I did – on an Anderson connector, requiring a spendy £4 set of replacement terminals – and after that all were fine. As with any crimper (even as small one), you’ll feel you need 3 hands at first, but a couple of practices will have it nailed down. I suspect that some of the mixed reviews were from folks who didn’t put the effort in and expected instant gratification

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Finding tin/ lead solder is getting harder. Toolstation did sell it. You can only use that alloy for home use. For commercial it must be tin/ copper.

For those who know me, I was taught to solder at eight, using a fire iron in a fire, Breaking "U" batteries to make flux.

Two things I learnt, a good joint, solder, comes from cleanness. Then it needs a good wash off afterwards, yes even with cored solder otherwise the joint will corrode.

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I used a crimping tool first and was done by a very good friend of my who is an Electrical Engineer and always but the best of kit. The crimped connectors did not work which is why we went down the solder route. Since I took that decision there has never been a problem whereas before I kept having to redo the crimps regularly.

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Normal 60-40 electrical solder and muchos flux should be fine.

However – you will find that a spool of electrical solder in the required size (so more like plumbing solder thickness, but not actual plumbing solder!), will be quite spendy, maybe £25. So my advice is still spend the £45 on a hydro crimper and practice on a few crimps first.

I arsed up the first crimp I did – on an Anderson connector, requiring a spendy £4 set of replacement terminals – and after that all were fine. As with any crimper (even as small one), you’ll feel you need 3 hands at first, but a couple of practices will have it nailed down. I suspect that some of the mixed reviews were from folks who didn’t put the effort in and expected instant gratification

And i suspect the negative reviews were from people who tested the strength of the connection after crimping, as i did. I have access to a very expensive crimping tool , borrowed , and have used it in the past. For my current project i bought a cheapy and tested one crimp, it failed a pull test and i borrowed the expensive one again.....the dies alone are £50 plus each! I am sure some people are getting results they are satisfied with, i did not but not for lack of effort or want of instant gratification.

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And i suspect the negative reviews were from people who tested the strength of the connection after crimping, as i did. I have access to a very expensive crimping tool , borrowed , and have used it in the past. For my current project i bought a cheapy and tested one crimp, it failed a pull test and i borrowed the expensive one again.....the dies alone are £50 plus each! I am sure some people are getting results they are satisfied with, i did not but not for lack of effort or want of instant gratification.

Fairy enough - I did say 'some' of the negative reviews...I expect us upstanding denizens of LR4x4.com are unlikely to be in that category. :D I too was sure to tug-test mine (fnar fnar), and have had good results bar that first one. I’ve also borrowed ‘proper’ crimp hardware from work in the past – so know the benchmark.

It seems that like a lot of the Chinese stuff, the issue is not so much the materials used or the built-to-a-price feel, everyone expects that. It’s the variance in the units produced. Some people get good dies, some people get some dies made of mangled cheese, from the same supplier! Tool ‘teardown’ videos on youtube are my new favourite procrastibation – some are very sniffy about anything that doesn’t say ‘Snap On’, some are very educational.

Back slightly more on topic, welcome to the Dark Side Need4speed.

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