How To - Solder a Wire
At some point one of the in you're trying to do all of your own repairs you will get in the situation where you will need to join the ends of two wires together. I have found the best way to get a really good strong electrical connection that will last is to solder the two wires together. For people who haven't ever really soldered anything together before this may seem like a difficult task, but in reality it is actually very easy and in some sense a lot of fun (I'm pretty easy to keep entertained). So if you follow along I'll explain how I go about soldering the ends of two wires together.
Some people may ask why not just use a crimp style butt connector to join two wires. While a butt connector would work and be functional, it's not that clean of a joint and over the life of a the wire I feel a nice soldered joint will hold up much better and be less likely to ever give you a problem.
The first thing to consider is making sure the final length of the two wires you are going to solder together will actually reach when you finally try and hook it up are attached to something at their other ends. So before you start cutting and stripping wires make sure you have some extra length so you can screw it up once or twice and still have an acceptable length in the end.
Another thing that I always do to my soldered joints is cover them with heat shrink tubbing and I use a marine grade shrink tubbing from Harbor Freight. I like to use the marine grade shrink tubbing because it has an adhesive on the inner diameter that flows when you shrink the tubbing which helps seal the joint and also adds strength to the joint so the soldered connection doesn't carry all the physical load if the wire is pulled on.
Once you have all the wire length figured out and shrink tubbing available go ahead and strip about a half an inch or a little more off the end of each wire and cut a length of shrink tubing the will overlay each end of the soldered joint by about a minimum of a quarter of an inch.
Next slip the shrink tubbing over one of the two wires to be joined and slide it out of the way then take the two wires and overlap and then twist together so the ends wrap at least one wrap around the other wire being joined. If you wrapped the two wires enough you should be able to pick it up without the two wire coming apart. The length of the wrapped joint should be less than three eights of an inch long.
Next apply some liquid solder flux to the joint.
Next take what ever you are using for a solder iron or gun and apply heat to one side of the joint and then touch your solder to the opposite side of the wires. What you are trying to do is have the heat that is being applied to the wire pull the solder through the joint so that it flows in-between all the strands of the wires so you have a strong electrically conductive joint in the end. Once your done soldering the joint its always good to try and clean any residual flux from the joint as it could lead to corrosion over time (but don't worry too much about it if you don't).
Once you've cleaned the joint, slide the heat shrink tubbing back over the joint and apply heat with a heat gun or hair dryer until it shrinks up around the joint and then you should be good to go.
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Some people may ask why not just use a crimp style butt connector to join two wires. While a butt connector would work and be functional, it's not that clean of a joint and over the life of a the wire I feel a nice soldered joint will hold up much better and be less likely to ever give you a problem.
The first thing to consider is making sure the final length of the two wires you are going to solder together will actually reach when you finally try and hook it up are attached to something at their other ends. So before you start cutting and stripping wires make sure you have some extra length so you can screw it up once or twice and still have an acceptable length in the end.
Another thing that I always do to my soldered joints is cover them with heat shrink tubbing and I use a marine grade shrink tubbing from Harbor Freight. I like to use the marine grade shrink tubbing because it has an adhesive on the inner diameter that flows when you shrink the tubbing which helps seal the joint and also adds strength to the joint so the soldered connection doesn't carry all the physical load if the wire is pulled on.
Once you have all the wire length figured out and shrink tubbing available go ahead and strip about a half an inch or a little more off the end of each wire and cut a length of shrink tubing the will overlay each end of the soldered joint by about a minimum of a quarter of an inch.
Next slip the shrink tubbing over one of the two wires to be joined and slide it out of the way then take the two wires and overlap and then twist together so the ends wrap at least one wrap around the other wire being joined. If you wrapped the two wires enough you should be able to pick it up without the two wire coming apart. The length of the wrapped joint should be less than three eights of an inch long.
Next apply some liquid solder flux to the joint.
Next take what ever you are using for a solder iron or gun and apply heat to one side of the joint and then touch your solder to the opposite side of the wires. What you are trying to do is have the heat that is being applied to the wire pull the solder through the joint so that it flows in-between all the strands of the wires so you have a strong electrically conductive joint in the end. Once your done soldering the joint its always good to try and clean any residual flux from the joint as it could lead to corrosion over time (but don't worry too much about it if you don't).
Once you've cleaned the joint, slide the heat shrink tubbing back over the joint and apply heat with a heat gun or hair dryer until it shrinks up around the joint and then you should be good to go.
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