Anal soldering 101

Yesterday, I found myself facing a bit of a dilemma. I needed to undo a modification I made a few years back to my Land Cruiser, which allowed me to play the stereo without leaving a key turned on in the ignition. I had snipped a wire and plugged it into an always-hot fuse slot. There wasn't a lot of room or extra wire to work with, and didn't want to scab in a piece of wire and double the amount of solder joints if I didn't need to, so I set the hamster free and came up with the following technique. YMMV, so please don't try to convince me it will fall apart and I need to do it differently. I'm not suspending a bowling ball by this solder joint, and I'll be willing to bet (via Paypal) it stays together and conducts electricity for the life of the vehicle. Maybe somebody can benefit on their projects from another tip, so I documented the process.

First, I spread the strands apart a bit:



Then, I pushed them together, forgetting to first place the heat shrink tubing, so back apart for a bit:



With HS tubing now in place, I formed the strands back into a unit:



Using about a six-inch piece of old speaker wire I had laying around (justifying my habit of never throwing stuff away), I stripped it and procured a single strand:



It's hard to make out in the pic, but I spirally wrapped the strand around the wire joint to hold it in place for the soldering:



Then, I flowed some solder in there:



Finally, after the joint cooled, I slid the HS tubing into place and shrunk it down. Voila!:

I think it'll be good for life also. Just don't use "scab" and "hamster" in the same sentence again. People will talk.

I thought that was TWN & hamster, not Scab & hamster (before your time I think)....sorry to burst your bubble Scab....& sorry for hijacking your thread Toe....

Depends on which way you wrapped the secondary copper wire. It must go with the flow of the current, not against it.

Do it wrong and it will upset the magnetic field causing resistance which equals heat, which could cause a fire resulting in the car burning, in the garage, which would burn the house down, causing a strain on your marriage, resulting in a divorce, resulting in you being single, and since single men don't live as long as married men, result in your premature death.

Another example of a motorcyclist living on the edge, and trying to cheat death.

B)

And another thing.... you sure that shrink tubing is heavy enough? Did you use a heat gun or match to shrink it? Excessive heat from a match could damage the molecular stability of the solder :glare:

I just want to know if the scabby hamster was harmed at any point in this process. :lol:

.........I thought you were supposed to solder it before remembering to put the heat shrink tubing onto the wire..........?????????

The whole process is much more intertaining if you do it that way!!!

Toe,

What you've done there ...... is....

well.......

ah..........

soldered a classic "butt splice". I use that technique all the time, and find them very reliable. In fact, if done properly, (as is yours) it is actually stronger than the wire. The binder wire is a good idea - holding it together while you solder.

ionbeam said:

I just want to know if the scabby hamster was harmed at any point in this process. :lol:

Click to expand...

If its scabby, it must have been!

You all are SICK FREAKS!!!!

And I love it. Brings a fukin tear to my eye.

Since I'm at work the pictures in this thread aren't coming up...and I'm really scared of what I might see once I get home and check out this thread later.

"Anal soldering"?????

WTF???

GunMD said:

"Anal soldering"?????
WTF???

Click to expand...

How d'ya think the hamster got all scabbed up?

What the ??? A Scabby hamster with a "butt splice" on it's toe? with anal solder? You guys need help :dribble:

btw, I've just lost all respect for toe :huh:

:jester:

Toe,

I've done that type of splice more times than I can count and cannot remember ever having a problem with any of them. I must admit to never including the 'anal' step of wrapping it with a precious piece of old speaker wire. I did use some old speaker wire to hold some rattling parts onto a lawnmover once- so I'm with you on the 'never through out anything' habit. I usually forget to slide on the shrink tubing before the actual soldering event so my butt splices end up looking like they were done by a 3 year old who found a roll of electrical tape. But I never had one fail so beauty is in function not appearance, kinda like a girl I used to date.

Well Toe you are correct...that is anal!! I suppose you also wash your bike! :yahoo:

gypsy

Toe it's lovely really.....but **** me (metaphorically speaking of course) you have way too much time on your hands!

Yeah, I'm with Thug. Not only did you waste your time, you're wasting mine!!

Who gives a crap? I usually tin each wire, then just solder them together. Not something that I usually contemplate take and post pictures of. But hey, whatever tickles your noodle!

-BD

I beg to differ, the job was not nearly anal enough! You forgot to prelubricate your condom - as in add some dielectric grease to the joint after soldering, THEN slide the heat shrink over and don't even DARE to use a heat gun. Just the warm breath of a Hooter's girl is enough to tighten up good quality heat shrink (among other things).

:clapping:

Oh and BD? Dude, you're grumpy, you need to go out and get laid or sumpin'........