I'm not sure how everyone else does theirs, but I use a 40watt soldering iron. I still find it difficult to get enough heat if I don't clean the tip of the iron and then tin it with solder. This helps transfer the heat MUCH better. I usually do 1-3 soldering spots, then clean the tip and re-tin it and keep going. Works great!
I do clean my tips - i even have a tip cleaner paste thingy plus do a double clean just in case -
Once with a stainless steel scrub and then with a damp sponge.
But the RCA plugs is made from one piece of metal and its very thick.. after 10 mins of laying on the surface, I can't heat up the part that I want to apply solder.
They act like heatsinks literally..
I do clean my tips - i even have a tip cleaner paste thingy plus do a double clean just in case -
Once with a stainless steel scrub and then with a damp sponge.
But the RCA plugs is made from one piece of metal and its very thick.. after 10 mins of laying on the surface, I can't heat up the part that I want to apply solder.
They act like heatsinks literally..
haha, they're WBT clones - http://www.wbtusa.com/pages/0108t.html
There are many on ebay and cheap, really worth while purchase compared to alot of offering for "branded" plugs.
If you're not a big believer of plugs making or breaking the connection, then theres are for you.
Perfect for to match the look of high end equipments.
Take this plus add some mapleshade silclear and you got yourself a quality, high end cable.
I do clean my tips - i even have a tip cleaner paste thingy plus do a double clean just in case -
Once with a stainless steel scrub and then with a damp sponge.
But the RCA plugs is made from one piece of metal and its very thick.. after 10 mins of laying on the surface, I can't heat up the part that I want to apply solder.
They act like heatsinks literally..
Actually that's pretty bad practice to use the steel "sponge" and then use a damp sponge. The whole point of using the steel sponge is that it won't cause the tip to fluctuate in heat (you don't heat and cool the tip constantly). So if you use the steel sponge then a damp sponge you are actually lessening the life of your tip by removing the excess metal and then cooling the tip -cooling it more than regular use because now you are just dipping the tip in the wet sponge rather than the tip + excess solder. Pick one or the other not both, but generally the metal sponge is better than a wet sponge. You can also do what we did in one of my old jobs assembling pcbs. At the end of the day we would uuse a few inches of solder on the tip to create a blob of solder on the tip right before we turned off the irons. We didn't clean off the solder blob, just left it on. The idea was that the solder would get oxidized rather than the tip during the night when we werent using it and the flux would also clean it at the same time. Everytime we turned the soldering pencils on the following morning all we had to do was wipe off the solder on the metal sponge.
But the RCA plugs is made from one piece of metal and its very thick.. after 10 mins of laying on the surface, I can't heat up the part that I want to apply solder.
They act like heatsinks literally..
You might want to invest in higher wattage iron. I use to have the same problem with a consumer grade/entry level (cheap Weller) soldering station. It was horrible at keeping a constant temperature and you actually had to "wait" in between soldering connectors for it to re-heat up. I finally said the hell with it, and invested in a commercial grade re-work station and it's night and day. No more waiting and there's no heat drop when soldering those RCA connectors (I use similar knockoff ones myself), plus for SMD work, the iron you get is so much nicer/easier to use on a commercial unit.
FWIW, I just use a damp sponge to quickly clean off the build up of burnt flux/solder off the iron every once in while. I usually don't go too crazy getting it clean - just a quick wipe when it starts turning black.
Here's some more cable porn for your viewing pleasure...
Here's the first cable that I ever tried building for my Sennheiser HD650's. I used Canare L-4E6S Star-Quad with a Techflex Nylon Multifilament covering with a custom modified ViaBlue Splitter (SC-2 with the Ferrite Core Casing (smaller diameter entry hole), Furutech 1/4" Phone plug (modified for 8.5M cables), Cardas Sennheiser connectors, cardas quad eutectic silver/chipquik tack flux (SMD4300TF10) and a number of 2:1 / 3:1 different sized heatshrinks.
My second cable attempt for the Sennheiser HD650 was almost the same, but instead I wanted to try out Mogami W2534 given all the reviews on Head-Fi. Honestly, other than being twice the price of the Canare, I'm not sure I can hear a sonic difference between the two (although it is easier to work with, but I like the cotton cord in the Canare since you can route the cords through all the way up to the headphone connectors to add extra strength.) The design is essentially the same as the first cable, but instead of the ViaBlue splitter, I used adhesive lined double walled 3:1 heatshrink since I didn't feel like going through all the effort I spent on modifying and obtaining all the parts for the splitter.
Finally, here's a new cable design I've been playing around with for some interconnects. I'm really amazed how good these Canare DA206 based interconnects sound. I honestly can't hear a difference between some of my other really (absurdly - I admit) expensive interconnects and these low-cost ones. I even used those fake Ebay connectors (it's $17 for 8 of them!) and honestly - they're pretty good quality for being so cheap. The most amount of money was spent on the Canare DA206 cabling ($1.10/ft) and the Techflex 1/4" I had lying around (the same for the heatshrink.)
Even though 3 pairs are shown, I built 4 pairs. I estimate that each pair cost me around $25 to build including shipping costs (again with the bulk of the price in the cable and connectors - although they're the cheapest locking RCAs you can buy.)
Does anyone have any tips on soldering litz wire 'cause that AKG cable was a biatch (sorry for the language) to solder. From what i've been told and from what i've read i need to heat the wire enough to remove the coating on the individual wires. I've tried, but it seems easier said than done.
Any help would be great.
And to HiGHFLYiN9, those D7000 look AMAZING. Beautiful job.
Patience I'd say, or you might want to spend some money on a soldering pot.
Personally I do ok with having a drop of solder on a rather big and flat solder tip and hold the end of the wire in it for a few seconds.
To facilitate good heat transfer, dap a little solder onto the iron, big enough to engulf the contact.
Touch the wires where the solder blob is and wait, while resting the solder onto the wire's itself.
You'll know soon enough when the litz wires are hot enough when you see the solder wire being sucked into it.
This what i do for normal contacts, have no experience with litz wire though, maybe you can feedback to us how it helps.
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