H
heymcz
Guest
Okay, so I wired up the Breed bridge tonight, my first time with the soldering iron (since messing about in college). I bought a 40 Watt Weller iron based on old threads here, and the standard 60/40 rosin core solder. It was a night of micro-thrills and minor paranoia....the hardest thing was getting the lead wires set up. Those things are tiny! I only severed one once. I didn't have wire strippers; I used a nail clipper and went gently around the outside of the rubber-coated micro theads. Every wire lost at least one strand, but it seemed to work fine.
I did the white and black wires first, they get soldered together on Dimarzios for standard wiring. Then I set about trying to see where the wires would fall if the red (hot) was set up for the terminal. In order to get the green and bare (grounds) to fall naturally on the back of the pot, I had to trim them a bit.
I used the pencil tip, which was great for getting the red wire (hot) into the volume pot terminal. But before I could do that, I had to get the old solder and bit of wire out. It took a few tries, and a bit longer than 2 seconds each, but I didn't want to hold it there too long and fry anything. I tried to use a desoldering braid, and it worked a little bit, but I kept knocking it out of the way by accident. Eventually I got it pretty clean. I bent the wire 180 degrees back on itself, and inserted the fat of the bend into the terminal loop. It stayed there on its own, and I managed to heat up the joint enough on both sides and melt some solder to hold it in place. Of course, I got the solder end stuck to the joint a few times, but I just used the hot iron to sever my blob from the rest of the unused strand.
Now the back of the pot was a mess with a sea of solder from previous installs. I tried to melt some of it off. But the pencil tip was too small and not doing anything. I was afraid of frying the pot, so I figured that since it was only ground and not signal, I'd just attach it to a slightly different spot. It took some doing to get it to lie flat. I soldered the green and bare together at first, then got them to lie flat and touch the pot but laying the nail clipper on top the wire. Then, it was blob city. Five or six rounds of adding more solder, just trying to get it to stick, and it did after a while. I hadn't made a nice puddle like the techs at the music hold did, but the darn thing is attached and working.
At one point I dropped solder on the kitchen table. You see, I had everything set up there, best light in the house to work with. But the blob came off the wood with minimal effort. The worst part was the smell....the word "ACRID" has new meaning for me. I quickly learned to hold my breath when adding solder...even though I had the kitchen window open and a good breeze, I don't think it was enough. It left a metallic aftertaste even though it hadn't been near my mouth at all. Afterwards I opened up the rest of the windows in the house to try to get it all to disappate. Let's see...yes, I used the wet sponge to clean the tip and I did also "tin" the iron. The Iron cost $18 at Home Depot, and the roll of solder was about $4. I got the desoldering braid from a friend, so that was free. Last time I let a music store do this, they charged about $37 for a setup and wiring. Two hours of my time, not a problem, I just hope that I didn't shave a few hours off the end of my life by inhaling the fumes....
Cheers,
M.
I did the white and black wires first, they get soldered together on Dimarzios for standard wiring. Then I set about trying to see where the wires would fall if the red (hot) was set up for the terminal. In order to get the green and bare (grounds) to fall naturally on the back of the pot, I had to trim them a bit.
I used the pencil tip, which was great for getting the red wire (hot) into the volume pot terminal. But before I could do that, I had to get the old solder and bit of wire out. It took a few tries, and a bit longer than 2 seconds each, but I didn't want to hold it there too long and fry anything. I tried to use a desoldering braid, and it worked a little bit, but I kept knocking it out of the way by accident. Eventually I got it pretty clean. I bent the wire 180 degrees back on itself, and inserted the fat of the bend into the terminal loop. It stayed there on its own, and I managed to heat up the joint enough on both sides and melt some solder to hold it in place. Of course, I got the solder end stuck to the joint a few times, but I just used the hot iron to sever my blob from the rest of the unused strand.
Now the back of the pot was a mess with a sea of solder from previous installs. I tried to melt some of it off. But the pencil tip was too small and not doing anything. I was afraid of frying the pot, so I figured that since it was only ground and not signal, I'd just attach it to a slightly different spot. It took some doing to get it to lie flat. I soldered the green and bare together at first, then got them to lie flat and touch the pot but laying the nail clipper on top the wire. Then, it was blob city. Five or six rounds of adding more solder, just trying to get it to stick, and it did after a while. I hadn't made a nice puddle like the techs at the music hold did, but the darn thing is attached and working.
At one point I dropped solder on the kitchen table. You see, I had everything set up there, best light in the house to work with. But the blob came off the wood with minimal effort. The worst part was the smell....the word "ACRID" has new meaning for me. I quickly learned to hold my breath when adding solder...even though I had the kitchen window open and a good breeze, I don't think it was enough. It left a metallic aftertaste even though it hadn't been near my mouth at all. Afterwards I opened up the rest of the windows in the house to try to get it all to disappate. Let's see...yes, I used the wet sponge to clean the tip and I did also "tin" the iron. The Iron cost $18 at Home Depot, and the roll of solder was about $4. I got the desoldering braid from a friend, so that was free. Last time I let a music store do this, they charged about $37 for a setup and wiring. Two hours of my time, not a problem, I just hope that I didn't shave a few hours off the end of my life by inhaling the fumes....
Cheers,
M.
