[SonicDawg]

I am planning on modding my K340's, but I am completely new in soldering (never held a soldering iron). I just got some Kester Aluminum Repair Solder that is made of 100% tin. Since I am planning on to use it to redo the internal wiring, is this a good material? Does tin degrade the sound much? Thanks a lot for any advice in soldering or just mod in general. I am completely new at this

 

[threepointone]

100% tin? that'd probably have a REALLY high melting temperature. It's probably not suitable for electronics work. A regular soldering iron probably won't even be hot enough to melt it. you're probably looking for something like 60/40 tin-lead solder. I personally doubt that solder has any significant effect on the sound, but if you think it might, you might want to try that cardas tin-lead-copper-silver solder--seems to be available here: http://www.welbornelabs.com/solder.htm . Kinda expensive though, you'll probably just wind up going for the plain old 60/40 solder, especially if you don't intend on doing any other soldering work.

 

[mb3k]

I second the Quad Eutectic solder from Cardas. Great if you're thinking of staying in DIY (muahahah

). I got mine from DIYCable.com

 

[damonpip]

As he said, DO NOT use the solder you bought. First off, it has much too high a melting point, and you'll destroy whatever you are trying to solder. Secondly, it may have some weird flux in it that is very corrosive, which would also damage your headphones.

Just go to your local Radioshack or Fry's and pickup some 60/40 rosin-core solder. Get something fairly thin, like 0.032" diameter. If you don't already have a soldering iron, you could start with a basic iron from RS or Fry's, or get a slighter better iron, like this.

 

[ezkcdude]

You're better off with 63/37 which is called "eutectic". It has a more rapid transition from liquid to solid than 60/40. Also, 62/36/2 (2% silver) is good. You want activated rosin core (RA or RMA).

Check it out at Mouser:

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/625/1666.pdf

Try 533-23-6337-18.

 

[dokebi]

I can send you a few feet of kester 63/37 rosin core .025 in an envelope if you need. Shouldn't require too much for modding headphones. Send me a PM if you're interested.

 

[SonicDawg]

Thank you for the flood of quick responses! I will try radioshack for some of the rosin-core solder mentioned here

 

[Uncle Erik]

All the solder suggestions here are good, but you also need to practice soldering before you work on your headphones.

When you're at Radio Shack, get a grab bag of components or a bunch of the cheapest resistors they have. Just get anything cheap. Now buy a protoboard- one of the ones with a bunch of holes in it for mounting components.

Now, browse around for a soldering FAQ. I think there's one here. Read it.

Once you've read the FAQ, take the components, put them in the protoboard and start soldering.

It's not difficult, but you need to practice before you tackle a real job. If all goes well, you'll start thinking, "hey, this is fun" and you'll get the hang of it.

And if it goes really, really well, you end up spending way too much money on PCBs and sit around with the Mouser catalog all day. You have been warned!

 

[thedoctor]

^ or you could watch the tutorial video from tangent. i never downloaded and watched them, so can't comment. could be found here.

 

[tomb]

Tangent's tutorials are great.

One thing I've been curious about - back in the day, I learned to solder by building custom slot-car chassis. You could never do a good job and get a great joint unless you always used additional flux - not just what's imbedded in the solder. Ever since, I take a dip

with my solder tip into a little can of non-corrosive Kester paste before soldering every joint.

You guys never mention that, and Tangent's tutorial never mentions it either, if I recall correctly. Am I soldering-challenged because I can't do it with just solder alone?

 

[threepointone]

probably not. I found a book on soldering in the library, and it pretty much tells you to use flux for every joint to get the best connections.

 

[thedoctor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomb Tangent's tutorials are great. One thing I've been curious about - back in the day, I learned to solder by building custom slot-car chassis. You could never do a good job and get a great joint unless you always used additional flux - not just what's imbedded in the solder. Ever since, I take a dip with my solder tip into a little can of non-corrosive Kester paste before soldering every joint. You guys never mention that, and Tangent's tutorial never mentions it either, if I recall correctly. Am I soldering-challenged because I can't do it with just solder alone?

not if you use some good quality solder leads.