Gt 5000 with no labels

[PTmowerMech]

You are not getting the wire clean enough or you are contaminating with oil from your fingers .
Try manually cleaning the wires, applying a LITTLE dab of paste flux before heating the wire,

On band new bare lean wire, try wearing rubber gloves to prevent contamination of the wire.,

Soldering is like welding.
Very few take the time to learn how to do it properly and do it so infrequently that they never get proper understanding nor technique

You're 100% correct. I usually twist the wires with my fingers.

I just checked to see what I actually tried. It's called Electro-Tek. 60/40 Rosin Core solder. I don't have any flux at the moment. But will be getting some. I think that's another reason the solder wouldn't stick. I guess I was thinking the "rosin" was the flux.
Learning to do things a better way is something I enjoy.

 

[StarTech]

You're 100% correct. I usually twist the wires with my fingers.

I just checked to see what I actually tried. It's called Electro-Tek. 60/40 Rosin Core solder. I don't have any flux at the moment. But will be getting some. I think that's another reason the solder wouldn't stick. I guess I was thinking the "rosin" was the flux.
Learning to do things a better way is something I enjoy.

Yes rosin is the flux used with copper wiring normally especially in electronic circuit board repair. Now there is two types a non activated and an activated version. The activated version wets (cleans) better.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Rosin core solder is same as flux core solder. If you are doing it right you don't need separate flux. Dump the butane torch and get a decent 30 to 60watt pen type iron with a flat tip. Learn how to tin the iron. You can't solder oxidized wires. They must be shiny. If you are fixing wire on a mower be sure to cut back to good wire. Soldering is a skill like welding or brazing.

 

[StarTech]

It just rosin needs to be the activated type as it wets better. And size of iron (heat source) depends how big of a heat sink the wire is. 18 ga take a lot less heat than 12 ga to get things to the melting point of the solder.

 

[PTmowerMech]

Rosin core solder is same as flux core solder. If you are doing it right you don't need separate flux. Dump the butane torch and get a decent 30 to 60watt pen type iron with a flat tip. Learn how to tin the iron. You can't solder oxidized wires. They must be shiny. If you are fixing wire on a mower be sure to cut back to good wire. Soldering is a skill like welding or brazing.

I have a couple of those pen type soldering irons. It's what I use to repair plastic fuel tanks. But there's not tinting the point of this. It just falls off into a ball.
The body oil that Bert was talking about doesn't come into play with that iron. Because I never touch it. So why won't it tint?

 

[StarTech]

It call "tinning" or you statement "tin"; not tint. Several reasons but the most common is that flux hasn't done its job of wetting the metal. Without proper wetting (cleaning) the solder will never stick to the wire. Also some wire might require acid flux depending its composition. I have seen some silver color wires (tin plated) to be resistance to rosin flux.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

The iron tip needs to be "tinned" first. Depending on tip condition will determine what you need to do to get it tinned. If you have been using it on plastic you will need to get it hot, use some steel wool to clean the tip and apply some solder to the tip and and it should wet to the tip. After that hold the tip against the wires and the solder to the wires NOT the iron tip till it melts to the wire.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Funny thing, I spent a few years repairing those old brass & copper radiators. I've run many header plates. And was pretty good at it, thanks to the man who taught me. That was using his method with a torch, liquid flux and metal solder.

Radiators are different than wires.

Problem with a torch on wire is the flame oxadizes the surface preventing the solder from sticking.
You need a torch where you can adjust the air fuel ratio to get a slightly reducing flame to torch solder.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes they are. The ones that looks like copper is actually red brass and requires acid flux for wetting the surface. "Red brass" is 85% copper, 5% tin, 5% lead, and 5% zinc.

What I use here is Kester 44 solder with a 60W pen or if I need more heat I used the 100w/250w soldering gun. Or at least that I normally use for copper wiring here.

I doubt that a pressing would be made from 85-5-5-5 which we call leaded gunmetal as it is a bearing and casting alloy and rarely made into plate as it tears very easily.
The only application for 85-5-5-5 sheet that I know of is for thin rolled bushes .
Copper for radiator cores is generally 99 to 99.9 % Cu with small amounts of silver, arsenic , lead , tin , Bismuth, cadmium & Iron in varying quantities from 0.0% up to 0.5% .
Top & bottom tanks are usually 70:30 and again some will have up to .5% iron.
The iron helps the solder to wet the surface and is generally used with iron bearing solder , ( up to 1% ) with substantially shortens the solidification time and also slows down errosion of the tool tips & dipping pots.
Probably made 10,000 sticks of radiator solder ( different to tin mans solder & different again to plumbers solder & different again to electricians solder ).
We had around 200 different "secret" solder recipies for various customers .
Metallurgically they were all just slight variations on the 4 major types and the tiny variations is alloying elements & purity made 5/8 of SFA difference, but the customer paid a big premium to get their special secret sticks made and most of these were made from recycled lab dip samples that were better than 5 years old.

 

[Rivets]

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