Comments on: Soldering headphone wire

By: x1xthumperx1x

x1xthumperx1x — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:15:17 +0000

I must say that you have made a very good post and would love to add a suggestion. What I have been doing for all of my acrylic wire soldering projects. But first let me say not to knock on the flame idea because it is the very idea I used before this one. I found the wires tend to get brittle and charred and because the wire is so small the heat distribution makes the fall off so abrupt the usable area is also brittle so for maximum strength I came up with this.

1. I tin the tip of my soldering iron and form a small puddle (1-2 mm ball) of solder on the tip

2. Then as I am holding the wire (BEFORE ANYTHING IS ATTACHED) I take it and rest it in the puddle until you see the acrylic boil to the edge of the solder

3. Now because I form the puddle of solder the acrylic waste does not stick to the soldering iron and you just have to tap the excess into a ashtray or bowl or your soldering station waste tray

What you accomplish by doing this is you tin the wire wherever you are connecting it to make for faster soldering once your working with your component to keep down on heat damage for the wire and component (as we all know brittle wires and burned up plastic sucks when your working on those “one shot” projects). you also benefit from have the acrylic coating all the way up-to your solder joint.

Things I have repaired:

Xbox 360′s
Turtle beach Gaming Headsets
Touchscreen car dvd players
Car stereos
LED TV’S
Projection TV’s
Laptops
Desktop Computers
Standard Earphones
Police Lighting Equipment
Surveillance camera Equipment
ECT….

By: Endorphin

Endorphin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:49:45 +0000

I’ve been using aspirin method for years: take an aspirin pill, place the wire on it and touch with soldering iron. Isolation then comes off easily.

By: shedman

shedman — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:37:26 +0000

the only reason they are made that small is so that they break easily and the manufactures make more money it goes with all the other shoddy crud out there i have noticed over the years how the quality of things have gone down or its sealed and comes as one unit most things are over complicated here is a good example—flux magnet signal generator amplifier cam sensor coil pack ecu —-all of that to get a spark to the plugs when all you need is a simple set of contact points for 2 quid does exactly the same job as all of that junk WHY???BECAUSE JOE PUBLIC CAN FIX THAT AND THEY DONT WANT YOU FIXING ANYTHING THESE DAYS but it has,nt stopped me trying before i give up my cash to the man

By: Matisse

Matisse — Tue, 31 May 2011 02:39:14 +0000

I think this step is not required. I agree with other who say just solder the wires as if the coating wasn’t there. I twisted the strands I was connecting together, put a tinny bit of flux on it, and applied the solder. The coating came off and rose to the top of the solder. I couldn’t be happier with the quality of the connections. This wire is meant to be soldered on quickly in the factory so I guarantee it doesn’t require the added step of burning the coating off.

By: spiguhe

spiguhe — Sat, 21 May 2011 19:10:41 +0000

my vote goes for pre soldering the wire ends like you might do with bare copperwire. if you do this right, the joints are beautifult(if you would ever consider a well made soldering joint to be beautiful and could master doing one) i have tried some of the lighter / scraping-methods mentioned above, they do work too, but i’ve found the simplest way to be the best way…

By: Byrnsey

Byrnsey — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:39:40 +0000

@elmer

I’d imagine since it’s been a year you’ve figured out something that will work, but I fix/mod up headphones for my friends/a living if I can get anyone to come through with the dough they promised :) and a straight razor blade is cheap, accessible and always works, although you CAN’T and I stress CAN’T be in a hurry or you’ll slash up the wires.

I’ve never tried an emery, but it seems doable. I can’t imagine a situation where its so time critical it needs to be done in a hurry, do it on a Sunday afternoon and take some time to make sure you make yourself good headphones.

Assuming you’re just a hobbyist, I think scraping is the easiest most accessible way to go about it.

By: Byrnsey

Byrnsey — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:33:01 +0000

I’ve found that lighters (or any intense heat) hardens up the wires and makes them break very easily. Maybe I’m lucky, but my lab has coating stripper (Someone mentioned they don’t sell it anymore). You dunk the ends in that stuff, and leave them somewhere to hang for a bit, and scrape it off with a razor blade (do NOT angle the blade in the direction you’re pulling! blade: / pull: =>)

Cleans them right up, although with the gold grounds it can be tough to tell when you’ve got them fixed. You can do them without the chemicals, it just takes time and care. I can’t imagine you’d ever need to do this quickly, so I honestly feel it’s the best way. (I originally tried burning the coating off with solder and the joints were always terrible.)

By: asdf

asdf — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:54:23 +0000

18M HNO3 in a fume hood does the job just fine…

By: mark

mark — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:53:19 +0000

Many thanks for all the info above. I have a pair of Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pros. HiFi and electronic repair shops wouldn’t touch them saying it requires a solder machine as wires are too fine…

After reading all the advice I above, I plumped for simply putting a blob of solder on the iron, dipping the lead in to it, then placing it on connection and rubbing the iron (with some solder) over it. No flux, heat sink, torch, etc

This was inside the ear bud so I don’t expect the joins to be stressed

Works a treat – Thanks again!

By: elmer d

elmer d — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:42:30 +0000

All you who have posted and said, “should work” I have to toss out. I need something from those who have had success. Rubbing the stuff off with fine emery cloth or fingernail file is a pain and way to time consuming. Acetone doesn’t work. MEK don’t work either. Burning is a crapshoot and makes a mess and how many of us have a 500 degree iron or a soldering pot.

Daves solution, Posted at 1:52 pm on May 25th, 2009, looks to be the easiest. Acids are not recommended for electronics but when you are banging your head on the wall what else can you do?. Specifically what liquid flux do you use Dave?

By: ben

ben — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:56:36 +0000

PS: after you burn off the coating with your soldering iron (not fire), there is NO CLEANING REQUIRED unlike this crappy article.

Like other’s have said, if your iron is hot enough, dab a bit of solder on before you put it on your insulated wire and the wire should be tinned as you burn the insulation off. This is the BEST method. Please don’t waste your time with the fire.

By: ben

ben — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:52:15 +0000

This article is useless… but the advice on here is gold.

I tried to flame method – useless since it leaves so much soot behind that by the time you get rid of it, half the wires will be pulled off.

Here’s what you need to do. Set your soldering iron to 500 degrees C and just touch the tip to the insulated copper wires. The insulation will melt off in less than a sec and the connection can be easily tinned.

By: mike

mike — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:32:41 +0000

dudes heres my method…
1. take ur headphone wire
2. put some soldering flux on the tip of the wire
3. put some solder in the tip with the flux
…the solder should automatically grab onto the headphone wire, replacing the colorful coating with solder :D

By: lionel baden

lionel baden — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:09:47 +0000

lol i just use a lighter spin the two ends together and if im feeling generous and caring ill put some tape around it

pff shrink wrap is for non resistant people :D

god im gonna go to hell for this

By: PCB design, Printed Circuit Boards

PCB design, Printed Circuit Boards — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:58:37 +0000

some funny comments here, very entertaining, especially if you don’t own a solder iron lol