Soldering CM/CR elements
Sun, 12/22/2013 - 10:05
In one of Fritz' (RIP) microphone tech videos, he said that he used his soldering iron at high heat (for the shortest possible heating time) when soldering microphone leads. He never specified the wattage (he used his on the "9" setting). What wattage is the safest to use, to avoid damaging the microphone?
Thanks,
Mark H.
Hi, Markus
Watts is a measure of how fast a soldering heats up, or how large an item it can heat - but not directly related to temperature. You certainly don't need or want a big powerful soldering iron with a fat tip to work on microphones. Soldering stations have come a long way and today we have temperature controlled ones. I recommend them for maximum control. I use a Weller WESD51.
The speed with which you can solder a joint depends on many things. How fast you can heat the components to a soldering temp depends not only on the power and temperature of the soldering iron but the mass of the objects and how efficiently you can get heat to transfer from the tip of the iron into them. A dry soldering iron tip may contact a hard round wire (such as the terminal of an element) at only a very tiny spot and take a very long time to heat it. The longer it takes, the more time there is for heat to spread outward from the bits being heated - a bad thing when it comes to elements. We DO want to get the job done quickly, but we don't want to use any MORE heat than necessary.
I use a temperature controlled iron with a medium-small tip - at a temperature of about 650 degrees f. (When I work on larger components, such as when I'm rebuilding an amplifier, I use a higher temp (700) as the the work will "suck" heat out of the iron as it is heating up.)
Here are some tips to do the job well.
1) Pre-tin both components to be soldered. You shouldn't have to touch the iron to the component more thna a second or two (with the kinds of things we're talking about here). By doing this you won't need 3 hands to join the components as no additional solder will be necessary - you're likely to be able to do the entire job much faster. Let the element cool for 30 seconds after tinning unless you succeeded in doing it in a second or less, which is your goal.
2) Make sure to "wet" the tip of the iron with a little solder. That will help make a larger contact area when you touch it to the work, to transfer heat quickly
3) Remove the tip from the work as soon as you see the solder flow.
4) If the solder does NOT flow quickly it may be that the metal is oxidized - a little sandpaper will clean it right up. Make sure your components are reasonably clean to start.
Cheers!