Soldering aerial plugs

[Dave Plowman (News)]

So since H&S played a part in the introduction of lead free, something of an own goal?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

18 swg - 1.2mm - is 15.59 for 500g of Multicore brand at CPC. I'd guess you're looking at the more common 250g size.

[meow2222]

Yes, its easy if youre reaosnably quick. But it takes practice to do joints quickly. Newbs tend to take an age over them, by which time the inner cable insulation is gone, and the plastic that holds the pin is so shot that both ends of said pin are over to one side. By then its a gonner.

NT

[Brian L Johnson]

wrote

Again, it's only a gonner if the whole thing is melted so badly that the inner wire is touching some part of the outer sheath.

And surely newbs can't take THAT long to make a joint, can they? Or are my soldering skills better than I think they are?

Actually, these days, I use crimpers.

[Mike Harrison]

The trick I use is to leave the core conductor an inch or so too long. Melt the solder onto the core first, then slide the iron+solder down to the pin so it flows as soon as the pin gets hot enough. Then hold the end to straighten/keep the pin straight while the polythene is soft (not with fingers obviously - rest it on something!) - the leverage of the extended core makes this easy. Then crop the core off when cooled.

[Ian White]

Along with an unquantifiable reduction in reliability due to the closer production tolerances and higher temperatures involved. Some of these problems may not show up for some time, such as slightly chilled solder joints, or the growth of 'tin whiskers' between closely spaced tracks.

There are some exemptions, but they are patchy and bizarre. For example, there are exemptions for medical equipment and for computer servers(!) but nothing for safety-related equipment.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

ISTR the US military requires only leaded solder on its equipment.

[Owain]

I don't expect they shop at Maplin, even if they do use Windows for Warships.

Owain