5 mm Connectors

[Re~Mix]

Anybody use these with their setups? I just soldered some up to my 9920 and 9L and let me say they are one PITA to solder. You have to heat them in the exact right spot and then all goes well. My connections seem strong (I've soldered many many times before) but I'm skeptical since it all looks so weak.

I use Ripmax/Xtra 4mm connectors and they work great with 12g wires, they have cutouts to allow you to get the soldering iron and solder in there real good.

[Scott711]

Okay this will sound weird but hear me out. I did not know how to solder these up so I enlisted the help of my father-in-law who is retired from Boeing and soldered things for a living for some 30+ years. He took one look at the wire and said that the 12 gauge wire was a little to small to solder into the solder pocket of those 5mm connectors. What he did to get a tight fit was unwind some spare copper wire I had laying around. Then he took one strand (very small like a piece of hair) and wrapped it very tightly around the exposed end of the 12 gauge wires. Then he tinned the whole thing together. When he was done we had a tight fit into the solder pocket of the connector. He use a large soldering gun to heat the connector, he said that a soldering pencil just would not apply enough heat fast enough. The connections came out looking great and are very strong. Since he's retired and always looking for projects I asked him solder up all my connections with the 5mm connectors. I really like the 5's because they are a little easier to get apart than the dean's and I just like to be different. :dft012:

I have to say if he was not around I don't know what I would do because my hand shakes like a leaf in a strong wind and I just don't have much experience soldering. Good luck.

[BrianG]

That makes sense. Without that extra wire to take up some room, you'd have to use solder to fill it in and that's not as good as using solder to bond the metals. Think of it like glue in a way; most glues work much better with mated parts rather than filling gaps.

Basically, the idea of soldering is to heat the connector and wire so the solder will flow into the wire strands and onto the connector being soldered. You don't want to simply drop solder onto the wire/connector - you'll get a poor solder joint.

When soldering large guage wire to relatively large metal object (large connectors, etc), you have to use a fairly high power iron (100W+), or a medium powered one (>=40W) with a thick tip (more heat capacity) so it will retain the heat longer. Whatever you are soldering acts like a heatsink so if you are soldering large guage wire to a metal object, you'd have to have enough heat capacity and/or power to get the items hot enough to melt the solder before they pull too much heat from the iron and cool it to below the solder melting point.

If you try to use a smaller iron and just keep it on longer to compensate, you have to keep it on too long, and the wire and connector sinks the heat and the whole wire will get hot, not just the area to solder. You end up deforming the wire insulation and/or damaging whatever you are soldering to. Or, the smaller iron can't get the items hot enough and you get a cold solder joint.

You think that's hard, try soldering ring terminals on 2 GA wire sometime!

[Scott711]

No thanks, watching him do this was taxing enough. lol