Tinned Wire Soldering

[Jerry Simon]

This doesn't say exactly why, and of course they're selling something, but it does claim tinning copper wire makes soldering easier. Perhaps it ain't entirely a myth.

http://www.smallparts.com/products/descriptions/a32.cfm

And then there's this...

http://www.cast-lighting.com/art-tin-coat.html

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by Jerry Simon

This doesn't say exactly why, and of course they're selling something, but it does claim tinning copper wire makes soldering easier. Perhaps it ain't entirely a myth.

http://www.smallparts.com/products/descriptions/a32.cfm

And then there's this...

http://www.cast-lighting.com/art-tin-coat.html

I guess they haven't heard of flux.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Terence McCann]

Originally posted by Jim Katen

I guess they haven't heard of flux.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

Isn't that a State?

[msteger]

..and a measure of solar activity..

[stubrooks]

In the electronics world, pre-tinning is done on almost all soldered wiring and components. It makes soldering faster reducing the amount of time needed to apply heat to the soldered components. Thereby reducing the possibility of heat damage in general and reducing the chance of solder wicking up a wire and under the insulation. Pre-tinning uses flux and the soldering process also uses flux. I still have a tinning pot in my colleciton of electronic assembly gear. A bar of solder is melted in a heavy metal pot. A stripped wire end is dipped in liquid flux and then dipped in the melted tinning solder.

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by stubrooks

In the electronics world, pre-tinning is done on almost all soldered wiring and components. It makes soldering faster reducing the amount of time needed to apply heat to the soldered components. Thereby reducing the possibility of heat damage in general and reducing the chance of solder wicking up a wire and under the insulation. Pre-tinning uses flux and the soldering process also uses flux. I still have a tinning pot in my colleciton of electronic assembly gear. A bar of solder is melted in a heavy metal pot. A stripped wire end is dipped in liquid flux and then dipped in the melted tinning solder.

All true.

But that isn't the primary reason that old rubber-insulated wires were tinned. They tinned the copper to prevent it from reacting to the sulfur in the rubber. Sulfur compounds attack copper.

-Jim Katen, Oregon