Quote:
This debate is informative, answering some questions and raising more. I've probably gotten myself into trouble by choosing solder, but given enough time and information, I can learn the task.

The solder-type RCA connectors I'm using have a flat - solder post. Can I solder wire onto a flat surface? My cheap RadioShack RCAs have holes posts. The "high end" - is just a flat surface and the + is a depression to receive the wire. Tempted to drill a hole in the - receiver to thread the wire.

The RCAs are where strain relief is my biggest concern. I'm considering hot gluing or caulking the wires at the end of the connector to help them.

How do I better join two (or more) wires before soldering them? Should I twist individual strands from both wire, then twist together the whole mass? Seems like risking metal fatigue.

I chose clear thin walled heat shrink tubing, but it seems thin. I probably should have got the thick walled for stronger support... but I think it had a higher shrink temp that I didn't want to mess with.

I chose standard tin/lead solder (two spools: one with and one without flux) over 4% silver solder because I didn't think I could handle the higher melting temp of the silver.

Maybe I'll try testing some soldering and shrinking this weekend. Eventually I'll get it figured out.


When using multi-stranded wire I would use the Lap Splice except I mesh with wires together by pushing them straight into each other and then lightly twisting so they stay together until soldered. IMO the meshing makes for a much stronger connection. You can also then easily slide the heat shrink over the connection. Just make sure you put the heat shrink on one of the wires first and slide it far enough away so it doesn’t get hot.

Not all heat shrink is created equal some is really crap. The clear stuff a bought a few years ago was not so good. I’ve had some black stuff for years that seems to work much better. Sorry I can’t give you more information other than its black. I’ve probably had it 15 years and have no idea who made it.

You might also want to get a small tin of flux. Flux is incredibly important in soldering. If you don’t have enough flux on the wires the solder will not adhere to the copper and you’ll get a poor connection. And never use acid core solder, that’s for pluming.

For stain relief you might try wrapping a small amount of tape around the RCA to build up the thickness and then put shrink over the tape and RCA. I usually buy fairly good, already made RCA cables. You can get a lot of noise through poorly shielded RCA cables.