soldering to steel

john dozier · 15th October 2011, 06:58 PM

I have a problem in that I am bypassing some coupling caps (16 of them) The leads are heat shrunk as I have found in another thread, cutting this away is a real mess. The good news is that these are box type caps with steel ( I presume) knobs from which the leads issue. I need to solder some polystyrene bypasses to the steel. I have a Radio Shack heatsink ( the clip kind) a 300 wat Weller Cards quad solder and flux. The bypasses are Rel Cap RTEs epoxy encapsulted polystyrene. Any hints on soldering this combo would be appreciated as steel is difficult to solder to and the polys are delicate. Thanks for the help.

john dozier · 15th October 2011, 07:03 PM

BTW I also have some Silver Epoxy. Would this be better than soldering? Regards

DaveG · 15th October 2011, 07:14 PM

Hi- some pictures of all this would help.

dangus · 16th October 2011, 03:02 AM

Cleaning the leads with sandpaper or scraping (knife blade) shortly before soldering should help. How about checking with a magnet to see if those knobs are really steel? It may be useful to remove some excess solder with a solder sucker before adding the new wires; you'll be able to wrap them tighter and more securely.

john dozier · 16th October 2011, 12:41 PM

Thanks for the magnet tip ! Stupid me. The knobs are not steel they are solder, which I should have remembered from my Bozak crossover days. I think will still go with the conductive epoxy though, as I am still concerned about heat and polystyrene caps. thanks again

15th October 2011, 06:58 PM	#1
john dozier diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: columbia sc	soldering to steel I have a problem in that I am bypassing some coupling caps (16 of them) The leads are heat shrunk as I have found in another thread, cutting this away is a real mess. The good news is that these are box type caps with steel ( I presume) knobs from which the leads issue. I need to solder some polystyrene bypasses to the steel. I have a Radio Shack heatsink ( the clip kind) a 300 wat Weller Cards quad solder and flux. The bypasses are Rel Cap RTEs epoxy encapsulted polystyrene. Any hints on soldering this combo would be appreciated as steel is difficult to solder to and the polys are delicate. Thanks for the help. __________________ Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get Paid.

15th October 2011, 07:03 PM	#2
john dozier diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: columbia sc	BTW I also have some Silver Epoxy. Would this be better than soldering? Regards __________________ Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get Paid.

16th October 2011, 12:41 PM	#5
john dozier diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: columbia sc	Thanks for the magnet tip ! Stupid me. The knobs are not steel they are solder, which I should have remembered from my Bozak crossover days. I think will still go with the conductive epoxy though, as I am still concerned about heat and polystyrene caps. thanks again __________________ Evil looms. Cowboy up. Kill it. Get Paid.

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15th October 2011, 07:14 PM	#3
DaveG diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: West Coast - SF Bay Area -	Hi- some pictures of all this would help.

16th October 2011, 03:02 AM	#4
dangus diyAudio Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Vancouver Island	Cleaning the leads with sandpaper or scraping (knife blade) shortly before soldering should help. How about checking with a magnet to see if those knobs are really steel? It may be useful to remove some excess solder with a solder sucker before adding the new wires; you'll be able to wrap them tighter and more securely.

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