Our First Solder Pot For Tinning Wires
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
- A solder pot is one of those little tools I’ve been meaning to purchase to tin the wires we use in our Raildig products, but over time you get pretty fast with a flux pen and regular soldering iron, so I kept putting off this purchase. When we got a couple of new large orders in from the Ztrack Distributor though, I thought the time was right to get our first solder pot.
Bit of a spoiler here, I’m now kicking myself for waiting so long to buy this pot! If you only have a handful of wires to tin, this pot may be overkill for your needs. We tin a lot of wires for our products here at Raildig so this pot makes a lot of sense for us.
This solder pot is, I won’t say it's a knock-off product, but it is widely available on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, etc., so you can do some shopping and find these anywhere from $15.00 to $30.00.
Solder Pot
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...
SRA 63/37 1lb Solder Bar
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
MG Chemicals Liquid Rosin Flux
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
5ml Clear Glass Bottles With Aluminum Caps
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...
Harbor Freight 6" Mini Hacksaw
www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-... - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
A solder pot like this is also useful to keep the soldering iron tips tinned after cleaning them. The goal is to re-tin the tip before heating it up to avoid oxidation. Playing with temperature of the pot will have an effect on how much junk is accumulating on top surfaces. Running it too hot will build up more junk as solder pool oxidizes. I run mine around setting #5, but this will vary based on the solder you load it with.
You're new, inexperienced. Solder tips don't "oxidize" as you say, what you are experiencing is the resin burning up, contamination. Just wipe it off with a cotton cloth before use, after use, it will be bright and shinny and remain that way 10 year later until used. What you don't understand is solder will not stay bright and shinny and "flow" well unless it contains resin. In other words you only have a second or two solder with that perfect resin solder mix before burns it up and introduces impurities. .Newbies add more solder, what you should be doing is adding more resin and or wiping the contamination off your tip, project. A solder pot does nothing here except sell solder pots to hobbyists, kids, who don't know better. If you tip needs retaining there is a product for that, it works a 100 times better than this, cost like 3 bucks. Try it!
@daviderickennedy2194 I am as much new as you are an idiot. Soldering tips do oxidize in air at tip pemperatures appropriate for Soldering. That is why nice soldering stations like from jbc cool the tip down when the soldering iron is returned to the base. To protect from oxidation you tin them. Tinning them in a pot is the best way to tin a brand new untinned tip. Some new tips come pretinned from the manufacturer, but not all.
4:35 - any type of small/medium size bolt cutter would have been adequate since you melt the rod after cutting anyway...
I got the same stuff from Amazon but the larger version. I tried it today and my wires wouldn't tin. Guess the Flux is critical. Glad I found your video.
The wires in this video were very thin, that plus the flux and you can see how quickly they would tin. As long as the solder is properly melted, you'll figure out the right formula for your tinning!
Of all the demo/review videos on this solder pot, this one is the best.
The most important thing is just how much solder that little pot holds.
I have one in my Amazon cart, but I think that I'm going to remove it. LOL
My originally wanted one to melt all the little solder globs from splashed solder and solder from the desoldering tool.
Recycling.
But I just don't have enough pieces to justify this thing. LOL
So thanks... you saved me a few bucks.
It does hold a surprising amount of solder! I think you'd be collecting the little solder globs for some time before re-melting :)
Great video. Working on getting my 1st pot. A must have for my R/C Car needs. Changing batt. leads etc..
Instablaster...
Ummm, that’s super-cool! I think I need one now...well just because! Thanks for sharing.
They do sort of have that effect :)
Very informative. Let's see more videos!! 🖖👍
I worked at an electronics Assembly company - we had the heavy brick style...from the 70's - still going in 2006 when the company folded. - But they are like $300-500- so for $25 and it lasts you a couple years....Why Not...at least you know more going in when you need to replace it.
I agree 100%, definitely not industrial or commercial grade. Sort of like a cheap Harbor Freight tool over a Makita or similar. Both get the job done, but if I'm a pro carpenter, I can't afford to have my tool die midway through the day. If I'm a casual user, it'd be annoying but not a big problem
So far this little pot has done ok and you are right, if I get a few more years from it, I'll call it a win.
So wonderfully STRAIGHT-Forward!
Thanks, glad you liked it!
I never knew these solder pots existed. Whenever I needed to tin stranded wires I used a soldering iron with a small tip. Right now I'm converting halogen downlighters to LED and there are four cables to move from the old transformer to the new LED driver. However, it would be overkill to buy a solder pot for this job as I only have 6 lamps in total to convert. Nice gadget, though.
It was the same here, I knew about them but held off until it made sense to buy. Even this inexpensive one has really saved me time at this point.
💪MAN temperature😂
omg this caught me off guard...
6:05 Turn down the heat a little, way less corrosion....
Keep these top quality videos coming!
Thank you! The next one is on very inexpensive airbrushes. I've taken a liking to these $10 creatures :)
Make sure to dispose of the lead at a hazardous waste disposal site.
Nice demo!
Thanks!
Im on the fence about this one. I want one, but also i get paid to tin alot of wires and its kinda a relaxing part of my workday. But if i tin faster i can build more. I make custom battery packs and sometimes need to tin 100s of wires at a time as subassembly to my builds.
Just my take of course, but purely for tinning wires, I do find this oddly relaxing too! I also find the quality of the joins / tinned wires better than I was doing it previously. Very thin wires now look incredibly clean for me. I can see both sides of this... it's interesting!
battery packs ? Use a damn spot welder ffs
@@Dinco422 alakline yes and for most circuits spot welder yes. But after the tabs are wleded on they are assigned wires which need to be soldered. Also lipos get soldered not welded , you can weld them i guess but i think its sketchy
@@andrewut7ya511 Everyone is an "EXSPURT" in everyone else's field!
EX = Has Been!
SPURT = Drip Under Pressure!
Excellent job on the video sir! I am looking at getting this pot to solder double zero gauge copper lugs to copper wire, I would crimp the lug to the wire, then drill a small hole at the bolt hole end of the lug, then dunk the lug into the pot, creating the maximum strength and conductive connection. Has the product been reliable? The pot looks quite deep, do you think it would be perfect for my purpose?
Thank you! Yes, so far the pot has performed exactly as it should. I'm not sure on the dimensions of the pieces you'll be working with, I never measured my pot depth as it never really came up as I only tin wires with it. Can't get an accurate measurement on my pot now as it's full of hardened solder. It might be a good idea to email whoever you buy from and ask then the exact depth.
Got mine today, 160W....Nearly same as this one...Paid just a shade under 10 euros,,,Bath/pot is 2 inches diagonal...
I never even knew they made something like that can you get a small one was that the smallest you can get
Just saw your question now. I think there are more narrow-width pots but I believe they are a good deal more expensive. I've used this one now for several sessions of tinning at least 200 wire pair ends and am still happy with the purchase.
Nice video! I used bolt cutters for the lead.
Better choice than my little saw!
Lead is notoriously soft and malleable, I bent mine into a coil and put it in the pot. It melted quite easily. Sawing, using bolt cutters, or any other form of cutting lead not only contaminates the tools but the solder as well. Buy some D-lead soap and wash your hands after handling lead. It doesn't take much lead to have a negative effect on developing children under 16.
3:40 why not push in as pot heats up....
Had to join after watching and fix the 666 subs.....lol! Great video by the way!!!
THANK YOU! I'm not usually given to things like that... but I have to admit that number was not sitting right with me, thanks again :)
@@Raildig you got it any time 😂
It's now January 6, 2021, is it still working for you? I'm considering making a new heater circuit for my 1974 model or buying a new one. I use it for tinning wires and for quick printed circuit soldering too. I suspect that's part of the idea with the flared bowl design, you only need to run it full for floating boards. Mine was 300w before the heating coil went poof from old age. The dross, tin oxides, covering the top of your molten solder is desirable as a protective barrier to prevent another layer of tin oxides forming as long as you can poke through it. Your video is well ironed out sir.
I've used this now for around 6 tinning-only sessions of between 100 - 400 wires per session with no issues at all. I also just checked and a near identical pot can be had for around $15 on AliExpress... half of what I paid.
Your dross / oxide comment got me doing a little reading over on Wikipedia, interesting stuff:
"60/40 Sn-Pb solder oxidizes on the surface, forming a complex 4-layer structure: tin(IV) oxide on the surface, below it a layer of tin(II) oxide with finely dispersed lead, followed by a layer of tin(II) oxide with finely dispersed tin and lead, and the solder alloy itself underneath."
Had no idea that simple waste dross was so chemically complicated! Thanks for pointing me in that direction. Thanks too for the nice words on the video... ironed out, I liked that!
@@Raildig any new videos coming out?
@@topcheese2889 Absolutely! Just been really tied up with building a new website for Ztrack Magazine. I'm through the tricky technical stuff there (I think!) so videos soon!
Thanks for the review! I was going to buy this specific item for work.
It is a handy little item, don't know why I waited so long to buy mine!
For how long you can keep using the same solder inside the solder pot? Do you empty it and fill with new solder from time to time?
I had thought about this as well (I should write to the company that makes this solder). While I regularly do scrape off the oxidized dross from the liquid surface when heated, I just assumed I'd keep using the same solder, adding more chunks once it gets low in the pot.
Here's an article on solder expiring. I will have a deeper look into this:
www.evilmadscientist.com/2013/solder-expire/
Anyone out there using the Hexacon MP-948 (or similar) and have any comments on it? Been thinking about picking one of those up.
Placing tinned wires into screw terminals is incredibly dangerous. The solder crumbles over time. This solder dust can cause short circuit and start fires. This technique is even illegal in a lot of countries. Please for your own safety don't do this. Crimp terminals are the proper and safe way to go. Even those and crimping pliers can be found rather cheap online.
Thanks for your input on this, I'd like to clarify a little what I'm doing. I'm not using screw terminals, but a spring / steel pressure fit connector so I'm not concerned with the wireds being crushed, as they could be with a heavier screw connector. The wires shown in the video are 28AWG and they while they are stranded, they actually already come tinned. These are all used in a low-voltage environment. The other wire I use on the other end is solid Kynar insulated.
I've find with the 28AWG stranded wire (not tinned together), these connectors occasionally won't supply enough pressure on the loose strands to give a solid connection. Plus with wire this fine, the occasional stray wires can happen and cause a short. With low DC and LEDs, I find these connectors and the tinned wires do a nice job for me.
@@Raildig it doesn't matter what voltage, nor what cable thickness. The rule is to never place tinned cables into any sort of connector. Doesn't matter of it's a screw terminal or a super fancy Wago lever connector. Even something as low as even just 1V can start a fire. There are enough examples of people doing exactly this and having equipment fail or finding charred areas around the terminals on the circuit board. A good example of this is often seen with 3D printer motherboards from diy kits that have caught fire, because people placed tinned wires into the terminals instead of crimping them. The main voltages on those boards are 12V, 5V and 3.3V. Yes it makes holding the cable in place much easier because it's a bit thicker, has solder around it wich keeps the cable Stands in place. But making things easier is not a solution if the safety risk increases. Crimp connectors can be obtained for any cable thickness, offer the same easier solution to keep the cables in place and don't pose a safety risk.
@@HardDiskLover I definitely appreciate your input on this, lots of good info you've provided, thank you!
@@HardDiskLover isn't like 99% of speaker wire tinned? They use the spring connectors no? Also perhaps lead free tin which is way harder is what they use? Curious is all, building a few projects that require a mix of applications and I want to get it right.
@@adept00 speakers use tinned copper where each individual strand is tinned with very thin layer of tin, not the whole wire is tinned like this pot would do. The problem with tinning the wires is that solder is harder than copper, so under pressure solder cracks and breaks copper or under vibrations even without significant load the copper wire will break at transition point to solder, because of sudden change in hardness/stiffness since solder is harder than copper.
The easiest way I've found to cut up a solder bar is with boltcutters, like butter!
Before I cut this first bar, I would have thought that would be overkill. After this one bar, I agree... good tip on the bolt cutters, thanks!
@@Raildig I'm not gonna lie, I saw you struggling with the saw before I bought a pot/bar and decided that I'd better bust out the big guns right off the hop! Hahaha, thank you for the helpful video my friend!
@@keebsnstuff3400 I think that's great, a little cross-TH-cam learning here :)
but you got rid of the solder dust? :t
A hatchet may do better at cutting solder
I was definitely a little too subtle with the tiny saw. The hatchet would have been a better choice! The second, larger saw did an ok job.
@@Raildig yea give it a solid chop and itll do
Sodder ?
But lead is pretty much outlawed for any company making products.
I would like a solder pot to pretend i work for Nasa in the 60s
לא הבנתי למה צריך את המכשיר הזה .
אפשר פשוט להשתמש עם מלחם
Ok, I had to translate here but... a soldering iron works for a few wires at a time but when you're looking to join or even tin hundreds of wires at a time, a soldering iron would take too much time. Also by using a soldering pot you can get much cleaner and more consistent results!
i HATE when they don't tell me the man temperature
I don't want to jinx my solder pot as it's working really well, MAN temp is fine... LOL.