Soldering flexible cord (headphones)

I have a pair of quite expensive (well by my reckoning) Bose noise Cancelling Headphones.

The 3.5mm 3 pole stereo plug needs replacing - intermittent contact of one core.

Bought a quality gold plated right angle plug, which comes with neat stress relief bushes.

The issue is the flexible cord itself .... it is a thin very flexible item ... the cores once exposed are not individually sheathed in pvc ... but what seems like a woven sheath thst just frays if you try to strip with a knife.

The overall diam of cable is 1.9mm The diam of each insulated core is 0.39mm

If that helps give an idea of cable type ...I have taken a pic:

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there a particular technique to soldering these ...... the issue is stripping the cores, it just seems to fray and get in a mess.

Don loads of cable soldering in the past ... but prepping the ends on this cable is proving difficult

Reply to
Rick Hughes
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Am 12.01.2013 17:06, schrieb Rick Hughes: [soldering problem]

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Just an idea (may be a bad one): Try to burn off the insulation with a pencil torch or even (if not at hand) a lighter. May work, if the insulation is cotton-based.

Hope you understand, what i'm trying to say.

BZW: I apologize for my bad English. I am a Kraut. Greetings Matthias

Reply to
Matthias Czech

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>>> Is there a particular technique to soldering these ...... the issue is

These cables can sometimes be a bundle of thin enamelled copper wires, with the varnish in different colours for identification. The idea is to give a thin flexible cable that survives bending well. It's often used in RF applications (Litz wire) as it has good high frequency characteristics, although this will be of rather less impotance at audio frequencies.

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it mainly involves getting the end of the bundle hot enough to cook off the enamel - so a decent sized iron, at a slightly higher temperature if possible, usually does the trick.

Charles F

Reply to
Charles Fearnley

It's tinsel wire and is very difficult to deal with. What I do is to try to tin it with the iron anf hopefully melt the insulation, then find the finest strand of copper wire you can get your hands on and wind it around the end then apply a little mote solder on order to make a sort of bootlace ferrule.

Reply to
Graham.

A delicate touch is required. A sharp modeling knife/scalpel would help.

Reply to
DrTeeth

+1, although I have also sometimes used a tiny gas torch as another poster suggested. Another technique which used to be used on Litz wire was dipping the end in meths and setting light to it, followed by gentle scraping (but that was an enamel, not a fibrous insulation)
Reply to
newshound

Herzlichen Dank mein Herr

Reply to
Rick Hughes

That what is appears to be ...

Reply to
Rick Hughes

I have a micro gas burner I'll try that

Reply to
Rick Hughes

There are a mass of wires in each core ... as I try to scrape they just all come open and stand a real risk of shorting.

Wonder how they manage during manufacture

Reply to
Rick Hughes

worse sometimnes it 'tinsel' which is wires interspersed with fibres good for flexcibility: almost impossible to solder at all

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

crimping or a solder pot

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Oh, I remember that. Winding IF transformers...

Reply to
Bob Eager

Early telephone switchboard cords had to be highly flexible and durable. They consisted of very fine strands of tinsel (cadmium copper or bronze) spun around mercerised cotton. It was then served with layers of silk or rayon, then covered with soft cotton braiding. The only practicable way of terminating these reliably was binding the end with fine tinned copper wire formed into a loop, virtually crimping it, to attach to the screw connectors of a "jack plug", or crimping on a spade connector for the fixed end of the cord.

Later cords used tiny crimped brass eyelets at the plug end.

Certainly solder didn't come into it at all :-)

Obviously all three conductors of the cord were then lapped in soft cotton and finished with a layer of glazed cotton of the correct colour.

It all kept the cotton industry going!

Reply to
Frank Erskine

In message , Matthias Czech writes

Winkelschleifer !

Reply to
geoff

;-) There are three things in this world that you need: Duct tape, WD-40 and Beer. Duct tape for things that move and aren't supposed to. WD-40 for things that don't move and are supposed to. And Beer if it doesn't fit into the first two categories.

Reply to
Matthias Czech

One wall free

Reply to
geoff

But as it stands it is insulated ... if you crimp on it, there would not be a good connection .. they must treat the ends somehow ... and in this instance they were soldered at the plug.

Reply to
Rick Hughes

Normally crimped.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

It's a standing joke here that you need a Winkelschleifer for almost anything.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

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