Wire Wars

Ginsly said:
If anyone can persuade me to try Teflon, it’s you J! :) I mean, I DO seem to have the strippers you recommended for it- something like this, right?
View attachment 102313
Click to expand...
This is the best hand stripper I’ve found for teflon: https://www.markertek.com/product/pal-1113/paladin-1113-stripax-pro-6

You can find used ones easily enough, but the carbide cutter replacement sets are still $$$. And they do wear out fairly quckly, I think my 22ga. cartrridge was only good for around five years, but I doubt it was a carbide one.

For pedals and onboard preamps I prefer the multistrand silicone stuff from these guys: https://bntechgo.com/

Their silicone ribbon cables work especially well for my onboard bass preamps.
 
Ginsly said:
I’ve seen this on Amazon as well. I really wish it had a top coat - no idea why pre-bond and silicone sleeve are mutually exclusive. Must be some manufacturing issue..?
Click to expand...
No idea, but manual tinning had been standard for me for over sixty years, so I never even think about it by now. More of a hassle with thinner gauges, but my default is 22 gauge for my own designs, which are 98% of what I build.
 
Passinwind said:
No idea, but manual tinning had been standard for me for over sixty years, so I never even think about it by now. More of a hassle with thinner gauges, but my default is 22 gauge for my own designs, which are 98% of what I build.
Click to expand...
I don’t really mind tinning, but it can make even 24 gauge wire a little too big to fit in certain places (daughterboards etc). Topcoat 24 fits everywhere, every time!
 
Ginsly said:
Ha! What did you not like about it? Stiffness? Melting? I mean, I’d much prefer silicone but the topcoat is a little more important to me.
Click to expand...
The fumes are very toxic and not compatible at all with my particular health issues. And in my case I just make the PCB holes the right size for the wire I'm using, which took a little tweaking but hasn't been an issue for years.
 
falco_femoralis said:
I use the amazon style stranded silicone insulated wire. The silicone is great because it's more temp resistant than PVC and doesn't retain its shape. You can still make it come out nice, you just have to make it do what you want in a different way. Embrace the flow.

I use 24 mainly, 26 ga for wire that's going into a solder pad meant for a component, and 22 or 20ga for bigger switch or pot solder pads. I always pre tin each and every wire, it is super annoying and I would love to not have to do that.
Click to expand...
Tinning wire before making a connection used to annoy me but now I'm so used to it I don't even notice. I think that like a lot of this hobby having a great soldering iron tip makes all the difference in the world. Tinning is only a pain if your soldering iron makes it a pain. The tip does wear out and when you replace it with a good one you wonder why you didn't do it before!
 
HamishR said:
The tip does wear out and when you replace it with a good one you wonder why you didn't do it before!
Click to expand...
You bring up a good point- I’ve been doing this just under two years and I’m still using the original tip! It’s a genuine Hakko tip and I take good care of it (blobbing when not in use, tip tinner/refresher once or twice). Solder still wets to it pretty well so I’ve been holding out on replacing it… seems like I’m really pushing it though.
 
Another solid core Teflon user here. I bought big spools of navy surplus in 18, 20, 22, and 24 gauge sometimes in the 80s, and just have small amounts left—a lot of it went into braiding interconnects for stereo and studio stuff. I have a bunch of different cutters for it, but my most used is to just roll it with an xacto knife—after a bit of practice you get good at knowing how much pressure to apply to almost cut all the way through. With the gauge notch type cutters you have to make sure the wire is completely perpendicular, otherwise you can Nick into the wire.

When there’s a lot of off board wiring, even the 24 can be an issue with stiffness though.
 
Ginsly said:
You bring up a good point- I’ve been doing this just under two years and I’m still using the original tip! It’s a genuine Hakko tip and I take good care of it (blobbing when not in use, tip tinner/refresher once or twice). Solder still wets to it pretty well so I’ve been holding out on replacing it… seems like I’m really pushing it though.
Click to expand...
I own around a dozen Hakko tips and change between my two primaries at least a few times a day if I’m working on any sort of extended project. I do have another tip reserved just for tinning wires, but one of my primaries works just as well for 22 or 24 AWG silicone wire, so I reserve the specialty tip for the 18-22 gauge teflon silver plate stuff I use in amps and rack mount preamps. Hakko tips are good for many years in my use cases, most of mine are at 5-10 plus years and still just fine.
 
Long ago, I used to buy teflon-coated silver wire from "John's Wire Shop" on ebay. I stopped using it though, due to the teflon coating being too slippery to work with my strippers (Irwin Vise-Grip 2078300).

I think it was on this forum, someone suggested this tefzel coated silver wire: 22 Ga. Stranded, Tin Plated, Aerospace Grade, Tefzel Wire. This stuff generally works pretty well in my strippers. And that tefzel coating appears to be almost as heat-resistant as teflon.

However, it doesn't have any bonding on the internal strands, which are tiny, so you really need to pre-tin before you solder to something else, or you greatly increase your chances of having a stray inner strand land somewhere it shouldn't, and turn into a frustrating debugging session. But 22 gauge means your tinning game has to be perfect, because if you add too much solder, most PCB solder holes (e.g. PedalPCB boards) will be too small.

My ideal hookup wire would be pre-bond so I could confidently skip the tinning step, and also have an insulator that doesn't shrink back when soldered, and also works easily in my strippers. I haven't found it yet!
 
Passinwind said:
Hakko tips are good for many years in my use cases, most of mine are at 5-10 plus years and still just fine.
Click to expand...
Wow! Ok maybe I'm in better shape than I thought...
MattG said:
My ideal hookup wire would be pre-bond so I could confidently skip the tinning step, and also have an insulator that doesn't shrink back when soldered, and also works easily in my strippers. I haven't found it yet!
Click to expand...
Ok, that's it - I'm starting an operation where I remove the pre-bond wire from PVC and slip it into silicone or teflon sleeves. Anybody remember that dude David Rees and his somewhat earnest "artisanal pencil sharpening" business? That'll be my model.
 
Ginsly said:
Wow! Ok maybe I'm in better shape than I thought...

Ok, that's it - I'm starting an operation where I remove the pre-bond wire from PVC and slip it into silicone or teflon sleeves. Anybody remember that dude David Rees and his somewhat earnest "artisanal pencil sharpening" business? That'll be my model.
Click to expand...

I have sometimes done that. I use 18 gauge pre bond for the chassis earth connection. Stranded is more mechanically robust than solid. Anyway, 18 gauge pre bond is pretty girthy and stiff, it’s almost like solid core in terms of bending it etc. It’s fairly easy to insert it into teflon sheathing.

IMG_8737.jpeg

For pedals the Remington/Weico prebond is great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top