GoKunming Forums

Electrical Soldering

rebobbinator (23 posts) • 0

Anyone here skilled at electrical soldering or know someone who is? I just need to solder a few wires together, nothing complicated.

For some reason, I cannot solder a good joint here. Back in the US I soldered a fair number of things on my own and had no problem. But here the solder just clumps to the wires in big globs rather than making a nice smooth joint. Is it just crappy solder? Tried buying some better stuff on taobao but no luck.

AlPage48 (1394 posts) • 0

Back home we usually had resin core solder to use on electric wires. Remember that soldering needs some kind of flux, so if your using a flux free solder then you will need to get some.

laotou (1714 posts) • 0

Taobao - lots of fakes, some real stuff. tmall.com - less fakes, more real. jd.com (formerly 360buy.com) - allegedly ALL genuine product, but higher prices.

rejected_goods (349 posts) • 0

it might be to do with the wires. in here, a lot cheap wires are made of aluminium with a thin coat of cooper. soldering them together become a challenge. crimping might be a better option. :-)

AlexKMG (2387 posts) • 0

If you can find the neighborhood broken TV, hot plate repair shop, the guy inside usually has a messy desk with circuit boards and solder. I paid a single lonely kuai for him to solder a wire back on. However, it's not a finesse job, big glob, but my bike light works again.

bucko (695 posts) • 0

If the wires are oxidized, solder will not stick.
Make sure you are heating the wires and your solder is melting from the wire temp. Do not melt solder by touching the gun tip.

marcuschen (178 posts) • 0

There is a repair market on 一二一大街 near the traffic circle of first ring road. Just stop by any of those shops and they can do anything you want.

rebobbinator (23 posts) • 0

rejected_goods was right. I tried different solder, rosin, and soldering paste and I kept getting the same terrible joints. I finally tried using different wire and soldered a much better joint. So watch out for cheap wires! Anyone know how to tell the difference between high and low quality wire?

bucko (695 posts) • 0

Just cut the wire and look at it. Easy to see if it is solid copper or plated.

Dazzer (2813 posts) • 0

where you buy wire makes a difference. local hole in the wall likely to be low quality.

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