[TowerTalk] Hardware Question

[Jim White, K4OJ]

nice pictures...

I have been using one of those little red Bernzomatic torches for a 
couple years now - they are great, I can click the flint and adjust the 
flame with the same hand holding it and then have the solder ready to go 
in  the other hand... I cannot imagine not having one of these as a part 
of my arsenal.  I have Dad's old plumbers iron which feels like a 
barbell when you wield it, too but the torch is more effective for me...

One problem I do have however has to do with the tip soldering of the PL259.

When I heat the tip and flow the solder into the hot tip, if the tip is 
uphill from the rest of the connector I see that the solder is flowing 
back into it... I do not like the potential for it going all the way 
back towards the dielectric so I deliberately hold the tip of the PL259 
downhill...

A bad side effect of this is that sometimes there is too much solder and 
it tends to make the very end of the tip fat as it flow out of the inner 
portion of the tip. As it cools the end of the tip looks like the end of 
a Q-Tip - larger in diameter than the the tip itself.

This results in PL259's that don't want ot mate easily with barrel or 
SO239 connectors... the tip is too large a diameter due to the excess 
solder which will end up on the outside.

Is there a way to prevent the solder from sticking to the outside of the 
tip?  I have tried to moderate the amount of solder I apply at the tip 
but even with a concerted effort I have too much solder a lot of the 
times... if I shake the connector to make the molten solder fly off I 
will not have enough solder on the inside and have to re-do and that 
solder that melted onto the tip wont shake free anyhow...

Should I attempt to file oe scrape the excess solder off - when I do I 
get the impression
I am screwing up the plating on the pin and ultimately lowering its life 
span.... should I have a wet cloth at the ready...

I like to avoid the mega hot connectors and usually use a small vise to 
grab a hold of the coax back of the connector to insure I do not get the 
urge to grab something hot!

Thanks in advance... HNY!

K 4 Oversoldered Joint



WA7VNI wrote:

> W8WWV has a very detailed description of his PL259 assembly
> process on this page:
> 
> http://www.seed-solutions.com/gregordy/Amateur%20Radio/Exper
> imentation/SolderCoax.htm 
>