Brian Kelly wrote:
Well, the average ham with a mighty 40-watt soldering iron and rusty
pliers isn't going to do much better. At least the minimum wage guys
are probably making cables with good tools -- 120-watt or better
Weller irons with 1/2" tips, etcetera...

Speaking of tips . . here's one. I've never been happy with any of the
Weller irons, not even the clunky big 300W versions when it comes to
"doing" PL-259s. Turns out that Sears has a very light and compact
transformerless pistol type "instant heat" 400/150 watt iron which I
bought for $59.95 about a year and a half ago. Does a great job on
connectors and heavy antenna wire.

I've never been happy with monster irons either, but have had very good
results using a hot-air gun as 'pre-heat' for my regular 45W Weller.

It's very easy to judge how long to pre-heat the whole connector body.
Then the regular small iron has plenty of power to make a good, clean
joint in the solder holes. The same technique is also good for fine
soldering work on large lumps of metal.

The bonus is that a hot-air gun is much cheaper than a large iron, and
you can also use it for other things too, like heat-shrink tubing. (Did
somebody mention removing old paint? What's this "paint" stuff? :-)

It isn't a technique to use at the top of a tower... but there isn't
*any* good way to do heavy soldering under those conditions. For that
kind of application, seek out the pressure-sleeve connectors that only
require the center pin to be soldered.


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek