Soldering Earth Wires On Top Of The Pots

[Chris1868]

At best my soldering of the earth wires on top of the pots is an awful mess - that may or may not work! I find this particluar job very difficult. Is there an easy or obvious way of doing this that I am somehow missing?

 

[jackthehack]

If you bought the CTS pots from Warmoth, solder won't stick to the chrome finish, need to dremel/file to bare metal to get it to stick properly

 

[Chris1868]

Thank you JackTheHack. That explains everything

 

[roboboss]

What jackthehack said plus use a fairly high wattage iron. The idea is to go with alot of heat with a short as possible dwell time. Using a lower wattage iron will force you to keep the heat on the pot too long which could damage the pot's inards. Putting a small dab of solder on the tip before you heat the back of the pot helps transfer the heat quicker. If you did it right the solder jont should look nice and shiney with the edges feathered. If it looks like a glob there wasn't enough heat. If it's very dull looking too much heat. Just my two cents worth. Best of luck to ya!

 

[bpmorton777]

what I do is dab a little bit of flux on the pot where Im soldering. works, baybe a little messy but it can be cleaned off.

Brian

 

[Rickgrxbass]

What jackthehack said plus use a fairly high wattage iron.

+1.  Skip the $10 radio shack iron and splurge on the $30 one.

 

[Chris1868]

I would describe my soldering iron as lukewarm. I have ordered a new 40 watt model. Thanks to all for great input.

 

[ocguy106]

Having owned a stereo shop for many years I did alot of soldering. This is the only thing I will use. fully adjustable and had no problems over heating the pots when I asembled my warmoth.

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=53136&group_ID=12179&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

 

[DiMitriR33]

i have the same kit but sold under a different brand. works great.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I know it is sort of basic and stupid, but cleaning the tip of your iron will make it perform a lot better.  This stuff is very nice for that.  I suppose you can find it elsewhere, but that was the first one that I saw. 
Patrick