Dave,

Cool, never heard of that. Will have to give it a try, thanks. Does it work for all kinds of varnish?

Regards,

Alan

Aspirin can be used to remove the enamel from wire. Place the wire on the aspirin tablet and put the soldering iron on top. Provide some ventilation. I found this on an RC modelling site and it works well on Jaycar enamelled wire and Earbud speaker wire.

Arv,

That's a great idea - using a shell casing!

Come to think of it I probably have a piece of brass tube the right size in that bulk pack from the hobby store... I have a high-wattage "basic" iron with a chunky tip I use infrequently for really heavy work, it should be OK as the heating source.

All the wires tested tinned *eventually* from cut ends at only 340 °C.

Regards,

Alan

A related idea would be the use of a solder-pot to tin the end of these different wire types (re. earlier comments about homebrew solder pots).

It recently occurred to me that a brass pistol shell casing would make a very good solder pot (use one which has already been fired, please!).

My dollar-store 36 watt soldering iron uses a pointed 3/16 inch diameter brass rod for the tip. I pushed out the shell primer and drove that soldering iron tip into the primer hole. Then I bent the 3/16 inch brass rod tip to the proper angle to hold the new solder cup upright with the soldering iron held horizontal on the workbench and prevented from rolling by a large lever-type paper clip on the handle. That paper clip holds the soldering iron from rolling and also keeps the hot end far enough away from the worktop to prevent it from overheating the surface.

Now I have a 40 Caliber Smith & Wesson solder pot.