Overheating Pots?

Andrew Lamprecht

Andrew Lamprecht

Minion of One
I always read people saying not to keep the soldering iron next to the pots for too long because they can overheat. A local guy who has a bachelors degree in electrical engineering says that it takes a long time to happen. He build computers and stuff so he is always soldering. I was watching him fix a completely messed up Squier Strat that some guy brought in. There was solder and wires everywhere in the cavity. He had an 85 watt soldering iron next to the volume pot for about 2-3 minutes and after he got everything back in working order, the guitar played just fine and sounded good too.

:dunno:

Someone enlighten me...

Andrew
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

The issue is that some pots have plastic parts inside. They can melt. An 85 watt iron should not need to touch any parts for more than a few seconds. You only want to melt the solder and heat the terminals/wires. More than that is overkill and could damage caps and pots. I believe CTS pots are built out of components that can withstand more heat, but you still don't need them to get too hot.
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

Andrew.. I have to agree with you ... I don't know exactly where I read/heard... But from what I remember you are always to heat up the area for a good while before applying the solder...

I am confused also.. :boggled:
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

MesaDCLP said:
The issue is that some pots have plastic parts inside. They can melt. An 85 watt iron should not need to touch any parts for more than a few seconds. You only want to melt the solder and heat the terminals/wires. More than that is overkill and could damage caps and pots. I believe CTS pots are built out of components that can withstand more heat, but you still don't need them to get too hot.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I doubt a Squier Pot is going to be high quality. He held it there for 2-3 minutes and it still worked fine.
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

Was it a fixed 85 watt iron or one that is adjustable up to 85 watts. I use a 25 watt and only need to hold it to the back of the pot for a few seconds in order to apply ground wire. 2-3 minutes with an 85 would start to melt the pickguard if the pot was mounted to it I would think.
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

Hmm, My iron is the pistol kind and very hot. It still takes a minute or so to heat up for a ground wire joint on a pot.
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

I have a cheap crappy iron (probably about 25W at most) and if I held it against a pot for 3 minutes I think the guitar would burst into flames.
Are you SURE he actually held it down on the pot for the whole time? In 3 minutes wouldn't the pot and plastic wire coating start to heat up so badly the plastic would melt?
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

bluesbend said:
Was it a fixed 85 watt iron or one that is adjustable up to 85 watts. I use a 25 watt and only need to hold it to the back of the pot for a few seconds in order to apply ground wire. 2-3 minutes with an 85 would start to melt the pickguard if the pot was mounted to it I would think.
Click to expand...

I don't know but I didn't see anything adjustable on it.

Diocletian said:
I have a cheap crappy iron (probably about 25W at most) and if I held it against a pot for 3 minutes I think the guitar would burst into flames.
Are you SURE he actually held it down on the pot for the whole time? In 3 minutes wouldn't the pot and plastic wire coating start to heat up so badly the plastic would melt?
Click to expand...

It was right on top of the pot.

DonP said:
3 minutes with 85 watts is not going to be good for anything.
Click to expand...

Probably true.

Reload in 5 said:
NEXT to the pot or ON the pot?
Click to expand...

On it.
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

I'm sure you thought it was three minutes, but it likely wasn't. I worked as a consultant, and would put people on hold for less than a minute (the phone showed the hold time) and they would yell and scream that I had them on hold over five minutes.

An 85 watt soldering iron, unless malfunctioning, would probably toast a pot if held on for more than what, ten or fifteen seconds? I fried one with a hundred watter in less than that, hence the purchase of my 20 or 30 watter.
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

I use a 30watt cheapo Harbor Freight version

it takes a bit to warm up
not minutes
EDIT
the iron takes about 5 to ten minutes
the pot, much less
from cold to hot , maybe 35-40 seconds

I dab a bit of solder on and hold the iron on till the solder "flows"
some large areas like pots take longer to heat up than terminals
but I try to do all the grounding at one time and in different parts round the back of the
pot ( sose I can change a wire without undoing them all )

dab here
next
dab
next
dab
done

all in 3 mins
 
Last edited:
Re: Overheating Pots?

Diocletian said:
Was it switched on?
Click to expand...

:smack:

I thought part of the problem was melting the grease on the track within the pot? Then you can have a pot that doesn't work at all positions/ or works intermitantly and feels very rough when you turn it. My tech told me VERY hot iron for minimal time. :friday:
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

I got a cheap 30W job and as long as I scratch the pot a bit with a metal object of some kind (screwdriver, pliers), solder sticks to the sucker pretty. Maybe 15 to 20 seconds to get a lil blob on there the size of a skittle. Thats enough to ground everything to.

Once everything's wired to it tho, it takes a while to melt that skittle. maybe 45 seconds or so. I think I overheated one cheap pot once. The pot used to feel kind of smooth in the sweep but after it felt really loose, and it turned too quickly. Dunno what that was about. Didn't sound any different.
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

Presumably an 85W iron is temperature controlled, so it'll just hold the pot body at (normally) 300C.

Good soldering practice is typically (taking Apem's standard as an example) no more than 300C for no longer than 3 seconds. Lead-free solder requires a higher temperature, so I usually work to 350C, no longer than 2 seconds.

If you can't make your solder joint in 2 seconds you're doing something wrong. Too small a tip, too low powered an iron, haven't cleaned the surfaces properly, wrong solder... all sorts of things can affect it.
 
Re: Overheating Pots?

Sporky McGuffin said:
\too low powered an iron
Click to expand...

Probably my problem right there.
yeah my 30W soldering iron was like $10 and I wouldn't really expect it to heat properly or evenly... or quickly... it's pretty lame compared to others I've used. I'd like a new one some day...

btw your avatar rules.
 
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