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Litz cable - decent quality small solder bath?

MotherSky

MotherSky

pfm Member
I'm thinking of re-terminating my AN Lexus speaker cable as I've never been 100% happy with the job I did last time...

I experimented with a range of techniques to remove the litz insulation and finally used a combination of abrasion and a kind of home made solder bath (I turned up a small brass pot with a base that slotted over the largest tip of my soldering station, set it up in a retort stand and cranked it up) - results were variable & I was never entirely convinced that the insulation fully burnt off when I tinned the ends.

The chap I spoke to at Hifi Collective implied that this should be an easy job with a proper solder bath, so I am thinking of acquiring one and having a go...

So: any experience/recommendations? I could just post the cable to HFC and pay them to do it, but postage alone on a total of 14M of cable isn't cheap, and I would rather be able to do a proper job myself

Any advice/pointers gratefully received 🙂 - MH
 
I have done the same as you, but use a blowlamp to heat the bath. And as I used to make leaded lights, I have several lengths of that type of solder. I finish off by tinning them with proper electrical solder.
 
awkwardbydesign said:
I have done the same as you, but use a blowlamp to heat the bath. And as I used to make leaded lights, I have several lengths of that type of solder. I finish off by tinning them with proper electrical solder.
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Does that have a high melting point? I did wonder about that as my audiophile OCD compelled me to use something mildly fancy in my arrangement which I only realised later might have been counterproductive
 
A basic lead free solder (copper tin mix) has a higher melting point (about 235degC) this will probably burn off you litz insulation better. I’ve used a large copper plumbing end cap as a makeshift solder bath at a pinch sat on a stainless mesh gauze on a gas kitchen hob.
 
Hmm - starting to think that melting point might have been the issue - the solder I used was 185°C I think
Perhaps I should just repeat the process with different solder

Do quite like the idea of using gas - possibly jig something up using a small head the blowtorch 🤔
 
Puggie said:
tin with lead free first, once the wire is clean of any insulation, then clean and tin it with your solder of choice.
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makes perfect sense - silly question perhaps, but do you still apply flux for the initial tinning/burning off stage?
 
You shouldn’t need to, burn off the litz insulation coating, wipe clean with ipa, then flux and tin if you have some rosin based flux. Avoid any active or acidic fluxes,
 
I various fluxes, but I stick to the no-clean rosin stuff for anything audio related 👍

Will give this a whirl at the weekend - thanks for the advice 🙂
 
Just thought I'd update this in case anyone finds it useful: I carried out a few experiments with a small cast brass vessel and a blowtorch set up on a retort stand & wasn't happy with the consistency of the results - it's very difficult to achieve a consistent 450°C (which is apparently necessary to reliably remove the litz coating)

I ended up buying one of these:

kaisertech.co.uk

Quick 100-4C Small Solder Pot Lead Free

Quick 100-4C Small Solder Pot Lead Free
kaisertech.co.uk kaisertech.co.uk

It's not rated for constant use at the top of its temperature range, but did an excellent job on two sets of speaker cables without complaint - seems nicely made, and definitely a cut above the eBay/Amazon crud 👍
 
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