[TowerTalk] PL-259s

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

I was going to mention Crimp and Clamp, but then I saw you moving to crimp.
Losing the nickle around those holes shouldn't hurt as the solder should 
cover any exposed brass.  OTOH Nickle plating is a poor choice around 
here as it turns green within a few short months.

73

Roger (K8RI)

On 5/13/2016 Friday 1:07 PM, Jim Thomson wrote:
> ## Im late to the PL-259 soldering party.  I find those Amphenol nickel plated connectors a real pita to solder.
> A few years ago,  I bought 2  doz van gorden   silver /  teflon connectors.  Now that’s the only thing that van gordon sold
> that was actually any good.   Silver plated  body and silver plated  barrel.  I  use a 100 w  american beauty iron..which has
> a .375 inch main body on the tips.... IE: the part that goes into the iron.   The tip is a tapered down chisel tip.   We used
> hundreds of these irons back in my telco days...  up to about  mid 80s, then  everything went to wire wrap, then later to
> quick connect punch downs.   You can also get an  AB  150w  replacement element that slides  right into any  100 w AB iron.
>
> ## The tapered down chisel tip and correct diam solder  works really good on any of these silver plated connectors.
> I have loads of  solder..in 1 lb rolls....and in many different diameters.  Real small stuff for pc boards....and bigger stuff
> for bigger jobs.
>
> ##  Dunno if  amphenol makes a  silver  /teflon connector, but that would be a winner.   I gave up on the nickel plated
> connectors a few years back, they require way too much heat... which is a pita if anything other than teflon is used
> for the dielectric.     A buddy years ago told me how they made commercial cable assys..and they used a 900  watt iron !
> Bam, done.   The small  40 watt irons, with their small tips, just don’t have enough heat to solder a  nickel plated connector,
> without melting the dielectric on  foam coax, etc.
>
> ##  They should have made the  4 x holes in the barrel of these  connectors  oval shaped,  or used bigger diam holes.
> Some have drilled the holes  out  a tiny bit bigger...but then you lose the plating.
>
> ##  I bought a crimper,  so can now crimp instead.   I use that setup for crimping male   7-16 Silver /teflon connectors
> onto  RG-393 coax.    I can also do  crimped  PL-259s  onto 213  /  393  etc.
>
> ##  american beauty also makes even bigger irons, like  585 watt etc.  They use a .50 inch tip..used for  soldering
> copper  tubing instead of using a blow torch.   I thought of that when  soldering to  .25  and  .375 and also .50  cu
> tubing and wide cu strap connections.  Dumped that  idea, and  went to machine screw  connections  on the ends
> of the flatten’d tubing.   Ditto when wrappin cu strap around  cu tubing, machine screws used to cinch the cu straps
> tight to the tubing.   A  100  w  AB iron does not have enough heat to solder  cu tubing, only the bigger irons will work.
>
> later... Jim   VE7RF
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-- 

73

Roger (K8RI)


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