How-To: Solder wire lugs even if you're terrible at soldering

[PatronSaintofChainsaws 1]

Let me start by saying that this is a terrible tutorial. I'm bad at soldering, as should be evident here, and I'm not going to claim otherwise. This is a tutorial for everyone else like me who is bad at soldering...if you're better at soldering than us, for God's sake man, make a better tutorial than this! As originally posted at HomageForum a few weeks ago.

 

So, you want to have cool soldered wire lugs like the 2533 / 3646 projects that everyone else seems to have here? But, you've never soldered anything or you're just plain terrible at it? There's hope for you yet. In this tutorial, we will attempt to use brute force in order to compensate for our lack of well-developed soldering skills. I don't expect this to be the best possible guide on how to solder lugs (mainly because I'm pretty terrible at soldering), so don't view this thread or these pictures with that in mind.

 

Items that I used for this tutorial:

 

• 1x Spool of Harris Stay-Brite #8 silver solder, 1/16" size
  
• 1x Bottle of Harris Stay-Clean Liquid Soldering & Tinning Flux
  
• 1x Soldering iron capable of 535°F temperature
  
• 1x Q-tip or available equivalent
  
• 1x Small sheet of 180 grit sandpaper
  
• 1x Set of hobby files
  
• 1x Pair of protective eyewear
  
• 1x Respirator
  
• 1x Pair of protective gloves
  
• 1x Pair of needle nose pliers (optional)
  
• 1x Stone or metal surface to work from (capable of catching dripping solder without damaging anything important)
  

 

 

Disclaimer: Read the safety and warning information provided by the manufacturer for each item (particularly in the case of your solder, your flux, and your iron), and follow any additional guidelines that they suggest. In particular, the flux and the soldering iron can both be quite dangerous if not handled carefully.

 

Before we begin, if you need to do any case reshaping work, go ahead and complete that work first. Ideally, we will solder the lugs after completing any major case reshaping, but before final sanding and polishing of the case. Here's my reshaped case.

 

 

It's best to completely strip the case of the crystal, bezel, crown tube, and all gaskets and seals before starting. Excessive heat could damage the crystal and any rubber or plastic seals, and you don't want to accidentally solder the bezel onto the case.

 

First, make sure that your lugs are attached to the case, and are at the angle that you would like them to be in. If you are using the stock lugs, they will typically be attached at a steep angle, which may not be historically accurate for the model that you're building. They should be relatively easy to bend into the desired position.

 

 

Next, you'll want to lightly sand the area that you'll be applying the solder to. This helps give the solder a surface to grip to. Wait, am I thinking of paint? Hmmm...well, sanding certainly didn't seem to hurt anything.

 

Afterwards, thoroughly clean the area that will be soldered.

 

 

Put on your protective gear (in my case, protective goggles, gloves, and a respirator), as liquid flux can be very dangerous if handled improperly. Dip your Q-tip into the flux (if applicable) and apply the flux to the area of the case that you will be soldering. Try not to apply too much, and clean up any excess flux as per the manufacturers instructions.

 

Connect your soldering iron and allow it adequate time to come to the necessary temperature for working with your solder. In my case, I used Stay-brite #8 solder, which melts at 430°F and flows at 535°F. I chose this solder for a couple of reasons. First, it's lead free, which is good for me since I don't like the idea of wearing something with lead in it against my wrist for hours at a time. Second, soldering stainless steel requires special solder (of which, Stay-Brite is one of those solders). Third, the color matches well with the color of stainless steel.

 

While the iron is heating up, cut a length of silver solder off of your spool, long enough so that it's easy to work with.

 

 

Here's where my method differs from the typical professional advice for soldering stainless steel by heating your fluxed area with a torch, then pressing the solder against the heated area and moving it around until enough solder has transfered. I tried that method, and failed miserably at it...several times, in fact. I also tried applying solder the way that you would in a typical soldering situation: tinning the iron, then applying the solder to the iron at the point that you want to make a join. So, here's the apparently-incorrect method that I used that was somehow more successful for me than the recommended methods. Of course, it probably doesn't help that I'm using a tip that's likely too big for what I'm trying to do, but I'm a cheap bastard and I don't feel like driving all the way to Frys Electronics in order to get another one

 

After the iron heats up, press it against the place where the case and lug meet so that the surface heats up. This will help in bonding the solder to the case/lug. Avoid breathing in any fumes that come from the flux, as these fumes can be highly toxic.

 

 

Melt solder onto the iron and then wipe the molten solder onto the area where the case and lug meet. It's probably not going to end up where you wanted it to go the first couple of times you do this, and it wont even remotely be the shape that you'd like, so use the iron to re-melt the solder and push it around the lug. Keep repeating the process of heating the case and then applying the solder until you have a decent amount built up. Work it around the lug with the iron until you can no longer see where the case and lug meet, and continue using the iron to help shape the solder into a rough approximation of what you want it to look like.

 

Once the solder has cooled, if there are any gaps or holes, trying pulling them away from the case with tweezers or even your fingernails. If the solder comes loose and/or peels away, then it hasn't bonded to the case/lug properly, and will need to be resoldered.

 

 

Wow, check out how terrible my soldering looks in the pics above.

 

Next, we'll make up for our inability to solder properly by filing the solder into the desired shape/contour with our hobby files. The solder I used here is relatively soft compared to the stainless steel case, so it only takes a few minutes to file into shape.

 

Simply start by filing down the highest areas of the solder with a flat file, then follow by contouring the solder with a round file until it's the desired shape. Don't overdo the filing, since if you file off too much, you're going to have to apply more solder and start over again. You also want to leave a slight bit of excess size to it, since we'll be sanding and polishing the whole case (including the solder) after we're done.

 

 

Here's how it should look prior to sanding and polishing (which is beyond the scope of this tutorial).

 

 

Repeat these steps for each of the case lugs. Notice that my lugs don't really look gen-like...I've intentionally used too much solder because I like the way the thickly-soldered lugs look.

 

Have fun, be safe, and good luck with your project.