What kind of friggen soldering iron are you using for ground points on the chassis?

[efnikbug]

I had to borrow an old ladies soldering iron she uses for her stained-glass projects AND use my soldering iron simultaneously for a LONG time to generate enough heat to get anything done.

You guys are using something more effective, right? Perhaps a BLOW TORCH!

 

[TweeDLX]

I had to borrow an old ladies soldering iron she uses for her stained-glass projects AND use my soldering iron simultaneously for a LONG time to generate enough heat to get anything done.

You guys are using something more effective, right? Perhaps a BLOW TORCH!

For chassis and pots, I use a 40 watt Weller, and if that doesn't work (which is rare), my wife's 100watt (she uses for stained glass!).

 

[Prairie Dawg]

I had to borrow an old ladies soldering iron she uses for her stained-glass projects AND use my soldering iron simultaneously for a LONG time to generate enough heat to get anything done.

You guys are using something more effective, right? Perhaps a BLOW TORCH!

125w Weller "Buck Rogers raygun" bought at a yard sale for $5. Works good, lasts a long time.

 

[schmidlin]

Pick up one of these for pennies at a garage/estate sale:

and take the Bernzomatic to it. Everything will cave to its mass.

But then, I bolt to chassis for ground.

 

[zzmoore]

My iron is 85 watts, relatively new, in very good shape. It takes a good 10 minutes for it to get up to speed, then it works real well on chassis joints. The chassis sinks the heat pretty fast, I would say I have about a one square inch working area.
Good Luck

 

[Prairie Dawg]

Pick up one of these for pennies at a garage/estate sale:

and take the Bernzomatic to it. Everything will cave to its mass.

But then, I bolt to chassis for ground.

Nice iron, or, "arrrrn" as my old crew chief used to say. Way back before the dawn of time I worked for Ma Bell in New Jersey. One day the foreman says "You. You're going to soldering school. Report to the South River central office for the next two weeks."

There I learned how to shape and form lead sleeves and open and close existing ones, not to mention repairing squirrel bites using an iron like that, a propane torch, and a solder pot, wiping the joints with wool pads. Those little tents in the overhead? That's what's going on inside.
Every once in a blue moon or three I'm back in New Jersey in Somerville out where the Olivetti warehouse was or is. Out in front of the place on the higway and west a few yards is a splice in the overhead I worked inside and closed up.

It was good background to learn how to fix the radiator on my 1964 Rambler American and later to start with the wire and stuff inside of radios and amps.

 

[DT7]

A 100-watt iron will do the trick.

 

[donnyjaguar]

Prairie Dawg, you are definitely dating yourself here!

I use a 60Watt Weller wand. Just get one with the big tip and you should be good. Its thermal-inertia that you need to solder chassis. Only a big tip will give you that- regardless of wattage. I've used a heat gun to solder copper plumbing pipes but unless its a bare chassis I wouldn't even try it.

 

[hasserl]

100 watt Hexacon, but like Schmidlin I prefer to use a bolt & nut to attach the chassis grounds.

I learned to solder using one of those old irons that we heated up in a soldering iron furnace, that was back when they still had shop classes is school. We learned to solder first, then braze, then oxy-acetylene welding & cutting then arc welding (shielded metal arc). Years later as an adult I pursued that farther and learned MIG, TIG and submerged arc as well.

And I also did stained glass (and other art glass) work for about 10 years!

 

[SamBooka]

I would like to point out that sometimes it depends on the metal you are soldering.
I have an 85 Watt that works well on fender chassis. (I have even used 45watters on fenders but you have to be very patient)

I have a marsh/mojo chassis that in some places takes solder ok and other the solder just wont flow (even if I scratch up the metal). The solder stays in a little ball on the surface of the metal and after if has cooled you can pick it off with your fingernail.

 

[phsyconoodler]

The key to getting soldering guns to work is make sure the tip is tight enough.If it's even a little bit loose it doesn't heat up very well.
I use a Weller 100/140 watt gun that is available anywhere with the copper heating element.Get a few of those elements and keep them on hand.
I have absolutely no trouble with any wad of solder on any amp if I keep the heating element clean and very tight.

And use flux.Without it the solder balls up.Clean is the key here.

 

[DT7]

I have a marsh/mojo chassis that in some places takes solder ok and other the solder just wont flow (even if I scratch up the metal). The solder stays in a little ball on the surface of the metal and after if has cooled you can pick it off with your fingernail.

Have you tried some flux paste? That will sometimes do the trick with stubborn metals. What are the mojo chassis made out of anyway?

 

[SamBooka]

Well it seems to be a steel chassis but there is a greyishness to it I cant explain. Kinda like galvanized but definitely NOT (not mottled). Here is a pic. Compared to weber chassis I hated this one. Nice faceplate but all the screw holes were too big (well compared to what fender used) so I had to either redrill the holes or use larger screws. I chose to redrill. Every screwhole has a duplicate larger hole about 1/4 in away from it If they are all like this I wouldnt buy another Marsh chassis. Stick with Weber.

EDIT: Sorry. No i havent tried flux paste. I thought that was for copper pipes I will try it since I still have to redo the ground buss. BTW you can see the tip of my 85 watter in the corner.

 

[alberob]

I have been using a Weller soldering gun since 1964, and it still works just fine

 

[Member 1963]

Why the need to solder to the chassis in the first place? maybe i'm missing something, but i've built a few amps and i just use a bolt to ground to chassis. A nice big bolt and TWO nuts, one to tighten it down good and hard, then a second to lock the bolt in place. WWIII wouldn't loosen it in a million years, and you of course put a few of those solder tabs on it before the nuts and you have places to add ground wires easily. I'm not sure why you would want to solder to the chassis instead, but if it's for noise purposes it shouldn't be any better. the amps i built are quieter than the marshalls i've owned and they have even higher gain preamps. But again, maybe i'm missing something so if i am i'd be interested to hear.

 

[efnikbug]

Why the need to solder to the chassis in the first place? maybe i'm missing something, but i've built a few amps and i just use a bolt to ground to chassis. A nice big bolt and TWO nuts, one to tighten it down good and hard, then a second to lock the bolt in place. WWIII wouldn't loosen it in a million years, and you of course put a few of those solder tabs on it before the nuts and you have places to add ground wires easily. I'm not sure why you would want to solder to the chassis instead, but if it's for noise purposes it shouldn't be any better. the amps i built are quieter than the marshalls i've owned and they have even higher gain preamps. But again, maybe i'm missing something so if i am i'd be interested to hear.

Well, my first headache came from trying to remove the can-cap from a SF Champ. There are four tabs bent out, and two of 'em are soldered on to the chassis.

Then I came across this issue again when trying to remove the ground line for the power cord to replace it. I just snipped it off . . .

I'm not building amps. Wish I could. I'm just tinkering with basic maintenance stuff.