I'm getting ready to purchase a set of apes for my 2012 SG. I want to get a decent soldering gun/iron/station to extend my wires myself to run inside of the handle bars. I know there are some really nice ones for a lot of money. I don't want to spend a fortune on something I will only use once and awhile.

I was looking at the Weller Gun at Home Depot. It is 100/140 watts for $50.00. Is that too hot?...

Sears has a Cooper variable 5-40 watt station for about $50.00

I have a cheap soldering iron from Wally World, but it does not want to heat the wire enough. I have tried it on other wiring jobs and it is not sufficient.

Any help in this would be greatly appreciated.

 

i use the big gun radio shack sells, its dual wattage, and has worked great for me for years. I wouldnt trust anyhting under 80 watts or so. and more is better with wires. just dont have to take as long to heat them. circuit boards and fine work is a whole different story,i have a pencil torch, and hot air machine for that

 

my advice would be to buy a soldering gun not an iron. http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...5&blockType=G5

30 bucks and it will outlast you. i have done a lot of automotive soldering and have a hobby that requires a lot of soldering also, but these guys heat up really quick and they have a light built in. make sure you use a good acid flux and buy good silver solder (thin gauge) also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVpDzbND8sY

 

NEVER use Acid Flux on electrical wires, it will corrode them. You'll want to use Rosin Flux on all electrical wiring and circuits. Most electrical solder has Rosin in its core, but it never hurts to add a little more before soldering to help clean up and bond the wires. Acid flux is used to prepare the surfaces on things like plumbing pipes and the like, but definitely not on anything electrical. Also, when using heat shrink, try to obtain the kind with an adhesive coating on the inside as it protects the wiring from moisture.

 

Personally, I will never solder a wire on my bike again, or anything else that vibrates.

A couple years ago, I had apes on my bike and I soldered the extension wires.
I did a very neat job, carefully sodered the wires together, then slipped a heatshrink over the solder joint, and when I had them all done, I put a larger heatshrink tube over all the wires to make it a waterproof harness.

It was fine for a couple years, until I was on a solo road trip, and my bike quit in the desert in Nevada. there was no power to the run switch, and I was stranded. I pulled the tank off and all the wiring looked fine, but checking it with a test light, I could tell there was a break in the gray wire. I slit open the large heatshrink tubing, and exposed the individual solder joints that also had heatshrink tubing.
Everything looked okay, so I slit open the heatshrink on the gray wire and the wire was broken right beside the solder joint. I slit open all the rest of them and found that most of them were almost broken off, some were only holding by a couple of strands.
The solder joints were fine, but the heat from soldering makes the wire right beside the solder joint brittle and with vibration it will eventually break off.

I temporarily fixed them with some red crimp connectors from Wally World, but when I got home, the first thing I did was redo the extension wires using crimp connectors. I used the red ones with the heat heatshrink already on them with the glue on the inside that melts to the wires for extra strain relief and water proofing..

Then I heatshrunk the bundle of wires together again like a harness. This is a permanent fix.

Do yourself a favor, and don't solder wires on a motorcycle or any thing that vibrates.

As far as I know, they don't solder wires cars, aircraft or marine applications.


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Get the gun,better still what i did was get the extended wires already to go ,just plug them in .check out 4rcustoms.in rowley ma. Or ebay,small company,harley only and cheap

 

here's all you need under $20

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062717

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062737

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...uctId=12515233

a nice pair of wire strippers comes in handy also.

 

how did you meet up your splices? , must've got them really hot? too hot perhaps??

 

A 40 watt pencil will be fine.The one you have is probably good enough,if you had kept the tip clean.A big mistake people make is not cleaning the tip.The reason kits come with a small sponge is because the tip needs to be wiped before each time you apply it to a solder joint in order to heat efficiently.The tip also needs to be "tinned" before its first use.When it is new,you heat it up.Give it a thorough wipe across the damp sponge and then apply solder,the 60/40 type is what you want for wiring,to the tip.Let a lot melt onto the tip and then shake the tip to "throw" the excess solder off.Now your tip is "tinned".I do guitar and amp repair and use my iron for up to eight hours at a time when I am building or repairing an amp and will repeat this tinning process 2-3 times in a night.You need to use that damp sponge each time you put the iron to a joint.If not the tip wont be hot enough.

 

A lifetime ago, In a land far, far away, yours truely had a part-time job fixing aircraft radios and wiring (when I wasn't shooting). Where vibration is an issue, there is no alternative to solder. Soldering is a learned skill. It is unlikely that the first time one undertakes such an enterprise (especially without training), that the results will be "good". Cold solder joints will not work! Practice makes perfect (as they say). Following the instructions in the above posts should get you started. Good luck!