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The ideal is that each cup is full enough to surround the strands inserted into it, but not so full as to overfl ow when the strands are pushed home. Think of a rounded teaspoon of sugar – rounded, but not heaped, if you see my point.

In Figure 1.81 only one of the three cups being fi lled is shown, but of course for this technique to work, all three have to be prepped (that ’s wirespeak shorthand for ‘ prepared ’ ). Got those solder cups tastefully fi lled? Nice bright, shiny solder, with a bit of rosin left on for the reheat? Good! Now let’s attach a conductor to a solder cup.

Inserting conductor strands

No, that ’s not a suggestive title, it ’s just what you ’ re doing at this step – honestly. Place the iron tip across the cup to heat both the cup and the solder. Wait one or two seconds after you see the solder melt and start to fl ow. This allows all of the solder in the cup to become molten. Then quickly push the strands into the cup ( Figure 1.82 ). Push them in until the conductor’s insulation is fl ush to the rim of the cup. Rapidly slide the iron away with a sideways motion (don ’t lift it).

Figure 1.82 Inserting strands into hot cup.

If you ’ ve done all this correctly, and held the conductor in place for a few seconds while the solder cooled, you should be rewarded by a chrome fender bright solder joint, with excellent strength and conductivity.

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In Figure 1.82 only one conductor is shown being soldered, when in reality all three must be soldered. But you knew that, you were just waiting to see if I ’ d forget to tell you, right?

Congratulations! If you ’ ve got this far and practiced the techniques I ’ ve described and illustrated, you ’ re now almost ready to begin wiring.

Designate a few connectors of each type for practice, and work with them before actually starting the wiring of your installation. This will save you some ruined connectors and a lot of frustration.

The wiring techniques for each individual type of connector are contained in later sections in this book. Select the sections that contain the types of connectors you ’ ll be working with and study each one carefully.

But , before you rush off to start wiring things, please check out Section 2 of the AWG. That ’s the Intermediate Information section, and there are a few things I ’ d like to show you there, before you start chopping.

The last technique I want to talk about in this section is that of de-soldering. If you practice on a few connectors, it would be useful (and cheaper) if you could do so several times on each connector. And suppose you make a mistake on a ‘ real ’ connector? So I ’ m going to show you a rapid and effective way to de-solder connectors. Remember those safety glasses I told you to purchase? Now is a great time to put them on, if you ’ re not still wearing them.

Now let ’s de-solder

After you remove a conductor from a connector, a thin coating of solder will always remain on the conductor. In addition, the majority of the old solder will remain in the solder cup and must be removed.

To de-solder is to take away the bulk of the old solder by a variety of means. The goal is to remove the majority of the old solder, without damage to either the insulation of the conductors or to the connector itself. This is necessary because reheated/contaminated solder makes a poor electrical connection, and is also physically weak.

It ’s OK to leave a light fi lm of solder on both the conductor and the solder cup. This actually aids the re-soldering process and is, in any case, impossible to remove.

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Let ’s use an XLR male plug as our fi rst example. It has some conductors attached to it which we want to remove along with the old solder in the solder cups.

Mount the connector (after removing its shell) in the vise. Tighten the vise jaws on the Pin 3 contact of the plug or on the plastic surrounding all the pins. If you tighten the vise jaws across the Pin 1 and 2 contacts of the plug, they may become loose or misaligned when you start to de-solder the conductors. The plastic in which the contact pins are embedded is somewhat thermoplastic in nature and will fl ow when heated. Then the pins will become loose or misaligned – not a good thing.

Grasp the most convenient to you of the conductors with the tip of a pair of small needle-nose pliers. While holding the conductor with the pliers, heat the solder cup the conductor runs into. Pull the conductor out of the solder cup once the solder has become molten. Perform the same actions for the other two conductors.

In Figure 1.83 Ken ’s camera got me just as I ’ d pulled the conductor out of the center solder cup (Pin 3). And yes, you have to do them all.

Figure 1.83 Removing soldered conductors.

Now you have a plug that ’s free of conductors, but you still have the old solder in the solder cups. It ’s been used and contaminated; you ’ d like to get it out, but how?

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Figure 1.85 Hitting vise to expel solder.

Figure 1.84 Heating solder cups.

Remove the connector from the vise and grasp it by the plastic with your pair of slip-joint pliers ( Figure 1.84 ). Hold the connector so that the solder cups face toward you. Heat any of the three cups with the tip of your soldering iron and, while the solder is still molten , slam the pliers down against the edge of the vise! Make sure you hit the vise with the edge of the pliers and not the edge of the connector ( Figure 1.85 ).

This action will cause the molten solder to fl y out of the solder cup and (hopefully) down onto the vise or the tabletop. Keep those safety glasses on – and while I ’ m on the subject, it ’s not a good idea to do this while you ’ re wearing shorts. It ’s far less painful if stray drops of solder hit the fabric of your trousers than if they hit your bare skin.

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Repeat this operation for both of the other two solder cups in the connector. The plug will now be quite hot, so let it cool for a few minutes before you attempt to handle it.

De-soldering other types of connectors is similar, but the exact details will vary from connector to connector.

You can also use a solder sucker or solder wick to remove the solder from the cups. But what if you run out or can ’t buy any? The above technique works every time, and all you need are the tools you should already have.

This method of de-soldering is pretty universal. You could call it the PHW method for: Pull out the conductor, Heat the solder cup and Whack the vise with your pliers holding the heated plug, to expel the solder.

A number of people asked that we show how to apply it to a {1/4} inch guitar plug, since they are so ubiquitous. Here is the same sequence of operations for de-soldering a {1/4} inch male guitar plug. The only changes are to accommodate the difference in construction of guitar vs. XLR plugs.

Unscrew the outer barrel and mount the plug in your vise with the bent-over arms of the strain relief facing up. In Figure 1.86 I ’ m prying up the fi rst arm with a small screwdriver.

Figure 1.86 Mount plug and open strain relief.