Soldering Pots?

GIBSON Les Paul · Post by **GIBSON Les Paul** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:32 pm

Hi guys,

I tried and tried to solder the buss wire onto the pots, but it isnt sticking. I did a quick search here and the suggestion was to sand the pots. I tried that with some scrap sand paper I had lying around, but no luck. Is there any other way?

Thanks in advance.

KMC · Post by **KMC** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:54 pm

Did you try a Lil' Flux? Scuff the pot and put a little dab of flux. had the same problem last night.

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:58 pm

How much heat are you using, i.e. what is the iron rated for? It takes some semi-serious heat to get the solder sticking to a pot case, and a good 30-60 seconds of constant heat to get the solder puddle to flow out right.
Your other option is to place a ground lug or two on the chassis under a board mounting bolt or something. Connect all the grounded lugs on the pots together with a piece of buss wire, and run only one ground wire down to the lug. Grounds from the board will go to the lug(s) too.
Check out Dan's (Billy Batz) pics of his 100 watt build in the DIY forum (I think that's where it was) for a visual aid of how to do this type of grounding if you need to do it that way.

GIBSON Les Paul · Post by **GIBSON Les Paul** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:17 am

My soldering iron is 15 watts. And I dont have any flux at hand. Im gonna try what Flames suggested (thanks!) and if that doesnt go good for me, I will run out to Home Depot tommorow. Thanks again guys.

GIBSON Les Paul · Post by **GIBSON Les Paul** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:26 am

Wait a sec, when you say connect all the grounded lugs on the pots together with the buss wire (and then run it to the ground lug), are you referring to the 3rd terminal on the middle and the two volumes? Or do I need to have all 6 pots somehow connected to this? Thanks.

Dai H. · Post by **Dai H.** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:33 am

GIBSON Les Paul wrote:My soldering iron is 15 watts. And I dont have any flux at hand. Im gonna try what Flames suggested (thanks!) and if that doesnt go good for me, I will run out to Home Depot tommorow. Thanks again guys.

15watts is not going to do it. More like 100W, maybe 80W (with a large tip). Esp. if the pots are already on the chassis, the body of the pot and the chassis are sinking away all the heat and not getting hot enough to melt the solder. As in all soldering, try to be quick. I wonder about damage to the pot internally if the internals are plastic.

Eoin · Post by **Eoin** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 6:32 am

Dai H. wrote:15watts is not going to do it. More like 100W, maybe 80W (with a large tip). Esp. if the pots are already on the chassis, the body of the pot and the chassis are sinking away all the heat and not getting hot enough to melt the solder. As in all soldering, try to be quick. I wonder about damage to the pot internally if the internals are plastic.

100 watt? I would have thought you could flash vapourise solder with that kind of power.

I use a 25 watt, I haven't had any problems soldering to pots thus far.

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:06 am

Eoin wrote:
Dai H. wrote:15watts is not going to do it. More like 100W, maybe 80W (with a large tip). Esp. if the pots are already on the chassis, the body of the pot and the chassis are sinking away all the heat and not getting hot enough to melt the solder. As in all soldering, try to be quick. I wonder about damage to the pot internally if the internals are plastic.
100 watt? I would have thought you could flash vapourise solder with that kind of power.

I use a 25 watt, I haven't had any problems soldering to pots thus far.

Really? I use a 35W and that gives me a hard time. Granted its a pencil and I havent tried the flat tip which would help Im sure.

Dai H. · Post by **Dai H.** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:45 am

Eoin wrote:
Dai H. wrote:15watts is not going to do it. More like 100W, maybe 80W (with a large tip). Esp. if the pots are already on the chassis, the body of the pot and the chassis are sinking away all the heat and not getting hot enough to melt the solder. As in all soldering, try to be quick. I wonder about damage to the pot internally if the internals are plastic.
100 watt? I would have thought you could flash vapourise solder with that kind of power.

I use a 25 watt, I haven't had any problems soldering to pots thus far.

the body of the pot? How long does it take you? I suppose there might be some tricks you can do to solder to a big mass with a low power iron like pre-heat the pot with a heat gun or something like that.

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:58 am

GIBSON Les Paul wrote:Wait a sec, when you say connect all the grounded lugs on the pots together with the buss wire (and then run it to the ground lug), are you referring to the 3rd terminal on the middle and the two volumes? Or do I need to have all 6 pots somehow connected to this? Thanks.

The third terminal on the middle, the third terminals on the volumes, and you can also do the presence pot (third lug to ground buss wire and mount the presence cap netween the second and third lugs.) You've got the right idea.

15 watts, huh? Whadda we need?

"MORE POWER!!!!" "Yeah, more power, AR AR AR!!!!"

I don't know exactly how many watts it's set for (I have a semi-OK variable temp soldering station) but I'm usually at around 700 degrees Fahrenheit for about everything. That's about 2/3 up on the dial, and I think it puts out 50 watts max maybe.......

KMC · Post by **KMC** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:18 pm

GIBSON Les Paul wrote:My soldering iron is 15 watts. And I dont have any flux at hand. Im gonna try what Flames suggested (thanks!) and if that doesnt go good for me, I will run out to Home Depot tommorow. Thanks again guys.

Better off going to Radio shack if you have one near? Depot soldering stuff is geared more to plumming.

DO NOT USE PLUMMER'S FLUX!

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:24 pm

There is some stuff in their home electronics/wiring section. But I've never looked in much detail, usually if I'm at Home Depot it's for house wiring-related stuff.

jbz0so · Post by **jbz0so** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:22 pm

i used the alternitive grounding also on 2 amps and both are
quiet as a mouse and sound great.......all georges parts of course

videocat23 · Post by **videocat23** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:07 pm

I used a dremel tool and grinded down the back of the pots in the place i soldered the wire to. I used a 25W iron with a point tip. It worked fine and is still on there. What size solder are you using? You might want to use an aligator clip, chip clip, er something to hold the wire on the back of the pot whilst you solder it on there. The more solder you use, the more it will stay on, but it will also take a lot longer time to harden.

Eoin · Post by **Eoin** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:47 pm

Billy Batz wrote:Really? I use a 35W and that gives me a hard time. Granted its a pencil and I havent tried the flat tip which would help Im sure.

Yeah.

Now I feel like a freak. I use a straight bit with a 3mm tip.