RE: Soldering Litz wire

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>

I just tried the aspirin approach.  The aspirin melted at a very low
temperature, I had a boiling vat of molten aspirin, but this had no effect
on the enamel insulation.

The wire I'm attempting to tin is a bundle of 259 strands of #38 AWG,
equivalent to #7AWG, about 1/4" diameter.  I also tried the
heating-up-in-a-propane-flame approach, but it just made a mess of the
bundle.  I was successful in using an abrasive fiberglass(?) brush to
scrape away the enamel on a small number of strands at a time, just tedious.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com] 
Sent:	Wednesday, June 12, 2002 11:33 PM
To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:	Re: Soldering Litz wire

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>
> 
> Is there a commonly available solvent for enamel wire insulation?  I'm
> trying to solder some heavy gauge Litz wire, but the insulation looks like
> regular enamel.  Immersing it in a solder pot does nothing.
> 
> Thanks in advance, Gary Lau
> MA, USA

	There's always the time-honored method of heating the bundle red hot
with a torch and then removing the insulation with fine steel wool. 
Works but time consuming.  Some of the formic-acid based wire strippers
work fairly well if you dunk several times and wait patiently for the
enamel to loosen.  I have a 30 year old bottle of Lonco stripper (don't
know if it's even available any more - EPA,etc) which I've kept more or
less alive by regular doses of water and alcohol.  There are probably
other satisfactory chemical wire strippers but don't have any info on
them.

	A method which a friend of mine swears will work is to put the wire on
top of an  aspirin tablet and apply a well-tinned soldering iron.  He
says the insulation will come off after the aspirin melts (don't know if
aspirin tables melt) and the wire will be nicely tinned.  I haven't
tried it myself as I don't want to ruin my soldering iron tips.  I
intend to dig out the old 100 watt American Beauty some time and give it
a try.  Why doesn't someone here try and report results?

Ed