[RodB]

He should try hiring an ambitious STEM teenager.

[Joe Rossi]

Mike,  Have you tried using wooden clothes pins to hold the wires?  Might save the fingertips and make it easier to be fingerprinted.    Joe

[morzh]

Joe


Here

https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthrea...#pid213527

I actually mentioned wooden clothes-pins and a reason I could not use it with this radio.
Another reason is, well, both wires have to be pressed against something and have full length of the solderable ends exposed. Not sure how I do this with clothes-pins.

[MrFixr55]

Re Coke through the nose, been there and done that. (Coca Cola that is, I don't do the other stuff, morally opposed and too poor. Rather spend my money on radios.) Re the alligator clips, use small ones and just catch the tip of the wires that you are joining. Use one, not 2.. They used to make small ones as heat sinks for soldering.

Alternatively, use a small piece of magnet wire, like 38 gauge, to tie the wires together, then cut and pull off.

[morzh]

MrFixr

Actually what I wanted to try was using a tinned strand from AWG 28-32 wires, wrap the soldered ends together and then solder over. The only thing I am not sure is, will the solder flow over smooth or show that ribbed surface. Meantime will be chugging along the way I have been so far.

[morzh]

This is what I have to deal with.

1. Tinning the wires that run on top and are pretty taut.

   


2. These are three wires, and they are at some obtuse angle. At this point the coil wire (coming through the board, a thin one that can be seen) has been soldered. Then I press upon one wire with a piece of wood (with the middle finger), to keep it from moving when the solder melts, and the last wire to be soldered is held by a piece of paper towel, pressed by the index finger (the paper is to keep me from being burnt). And the solder is wrapped around the middle finger to keep it handy. Then it is all reflowed again.

   

3. Soldered.

   

4. Stapled. The staples are all original if I can help it (one or two broke due to rusting, tthe rest are fine). I use the wooden handle of a large scredriver to tap the staples in.

   


And if it looks like there is a heatmark on the board, well, this is the original. It was shot  with different light and still dusty. But the mark is visible. They soldered right on the board back then.
   

[MrFixr55]

Mike, that may be the answer! Maybe they stapled first and soldered next. Looking at the joint at the bottom of the last photo, it appears that the solder attached (or attempted to attach) to the staple.

I don't quite remember, nut I think that when the 20 or the 20C came out, they had a crimp type collar that they crimped on before they soldered the connection. Certainly easier.

[morzh]

Could be. I thought of doing this also, but then, once they are stapled down, it will be very difficult to slide the foil under, or, if slid before, extract it, and soldering on the wood is the reason I've been going through that trouble.
I will try wrapping a strand of a 32-gauge multi-strand wire around, see if this works, though the very wrapping could be a tedious task in itself.

[RodB]

When I was a young lad I considered wood burning an intriguing hobby until I thought about an iron hot enough to burn wood can, and does, burn skin. Enough said. I can be creative without the scars.

[morzh]

Rod,

That brings up the question: how did you get into this hobby that is known to employ irons, some of which are quite a bit more potent than those used in pyrography?

[RodB]

I attended a vocational high school offering 3 years of Radio and TV Electronics. Been in electronics ever since. Did you get involved before college?

[morzh]

Since 8 y.o.
My college (university) education was not electronics, it was Physics.

[Arran]

Mike;
I have several irons that are 100 Watts or more, very good for soldering and unsoldering from steel chassis, it was probably something similar to that that was used to solder that bread board at the A.K factory. I use a soldering gun for most other things in tube sets, but not on printed circuit boards. So you learned the how, and why something falls, especially on your foot?
Regards
Arran

[RodB]

Mike, When I was 13 in 9th grade I took an aptitude test to see what my interests were and a counselor indicated my high scores in math and physics so she pointed out that I was a great candidate for the electronics course work. I applied and the rest is history.

[radiorich]

Hello Rob,
Looks like you’ve caught the Electron bug.
I have been working around electronics since I was a kid I took it in high school and in college then took over a repair business .
Sincerely Richard