Soldering 12ga wire

[jrigg]

I am going to be changing my AC power cord on an amp to a 12ga cable. How do you solder this large of a wire? Tin it first using flux? And then heat the terminal it is being soldered to after placing flux on it too? Thanks in advance for your responses.

[Blue Strat]

12 ga may be overdoing it unless it's a 400 watt amp:)

You'll need a 100 watt iron, not gun, with a big tip...something like a 1/4" screw driver tip. Heat the wire and terminal and apply the solder to the joint, not the tip of the iron. You shouldn't need flux.

[Fretts]

+1 on the big soldering iron, maybe you can borrow one from a sheet metal shop or plumber for that one job. I have had pretty good luck with a 200watt Weller soldering gun. It's more convenient but doesn't store as much heat as the big iron. It's nice to have the gun, though you can use it for other electrical things like speaker cables and big AC wiring jobs.

[jrigg]

12 ga is way over the top but in my experimenting, I am trying out an audiophile AC cable to see whether it actually makes a sonic difference or not. Thanks for your tips, I guess a 100 watt iron is on my list. I do have a 100 watt gun already but looks like it's not going to work.