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solder not sticking/adhering or tinning to braided wire

FWIW, what works well enough for me with the occasional difficulty with a soldering a connection due to mild oxidation, is to dip, or apply with a cotton swab, if necessary Tarn-X brand silver cleaner, to it for a handful of seconds, then spray wash/rinse to deactivate the mild acid on the wire/connection with denatured alcohol or contact cleaner, then solder.

For decades, I`ve always kept a bottle of Tarn-X within hands reach to my benches, if needed, though only after I`ve tried to just spray first with denatured alcohol, or contact cleaner to see if that is enough to facilitate complete proper solder adhesion.

Living my whole life near the often high humidity/salty air coastal FL., both North and South ends of the state, and repairing electronics in these areas suggested this choice to be something to try many decades ago.

Liquid flux that looks like clear water, that my long time fellow tech friend gave me ~15 yrs. ago, that a visiting tech product salesman left with him, also seems to work very well when applied to very old crusty filthy solder connections has also helped more than once to allow the parts to be easily unsoldered and removed, like the 50 yr. old environment exposed DQ-10 crossover capacitors.

Just a few suggestive thoughts.
 
I have always maintained the metric system is not universally (if at all) superior. Celsius measurements are too coarse. Something like 1,383mm is ridiculous.

EDIT: However, it IS handy for working with small measurements. 2mm is easier to visualize than 0.0787402 inches, for example. :D

Doug
 
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So, I went to the google to see if Tarn-X is the same stuff introduced in the late nineteen sixties for removing oxidation (it is and I remember them always showing a copper button on jeans being immediately brightened, albeit left with a dull surface) in the ubiquitous commercials, back then.

The AI overview began with stating Tarn-X was introduced 50 years sago, in 1967! Now THERE'S accuracy for you!

Doug
 
Bill Ferris said:
FWIW, what works well enough for me with the occasional difficulty with a soldering a connection due to mild oxidation, is to dip, or apply with a cotton swab, if necessary Tarn-X brand silver cleaner, to it for a handful of seconds, then spray wash/rinse to deactivate the mild acid on the wire/connection with denatured alcohol or contact cleaner, then solder.
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I built some amp and subwoofer units for cars, way back in the last millennium. I used the speaker wire that everyone used back then. It had clear insulation.

When that stupid wire corroded at the solder point, you could look down the length of the wire and see all the green rotted copper. I could bend the darn thing at the midpoint and break the wire.

I never used that stuff again. It's been Belden or some similar Pro-studio type ever since. I think you guys know the brand — they spent a lot of $$$ on advertisements and lawsuits.

:idea:
 
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Mr Boochie said:
I built some amp and subwoofer units for cars, way back in the last millennium. I used the speaker wire that everyone used back then. It had clear insulation.

When that stupid wire corroded at the solder point, you could look down the length of the wire and see all the green rotted copper. I could bend the darn thing at the midpoint and break the wire.

I never used that wire again. It's been Belden or some similar Pro-studio type ever since. I think you guys know the brand — they spent a lot of $$$ on advertisements and lawsuits.

:idea:
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Ironically, my 20 + yr. old of HD purchased "MC" brand unopened 100ft. spool of 14 ga. clear jacketed with one copper leg, and the other tined speaker wire is free of green rot corrosion, or any discoloration, yet my purchased in the eighties ~nineties RS brand 14 ga. whether installed in use or even still on a unopened reel, show discolored "green copper rot" on the un-tined leg.
The type plastic insulation used chemical reaction with the bare copper wire over time is what I`ve read here a few times is the reason, probably similar to the Craftsman screwdriver handles crusting up whitish and stinking like vomit after many yrs.

As a comedic side to the Craftsman screwdriver handles lovely vomit odor, I inadvertently found out in the late seventies how to rapidly clear the band`s venue`s crowded stage from the players who were also trying to setup quickly, all getting in my way while I was trying to get all my sound & lighting stage wiring done, was to open up my Craftsman tool box and leave it fully open with the multiple midish seventies purchased screwdriver`s lovely very strong vomit smell driving everybody off "my" stage until I finished and closed the tool box !
 
Bill Ferris said:
As a comedic side to the Craftsman screwdriver handles lovely vomit odor, I inadvertently found out in the late seventies how to rapidly clear the band`s venue`s crowded stage from the players who were also trying to setup quickly, all getting in my way while I was trying to get all my sound & lighting stage wiring done, was to open up my Craftsman tool box and leave it fully open with the multiple midish seventies purchased screwdriver`s lovely very strong vomit smell driving everybody off "my" stage until I finished and closed the tool box !
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Every mechanic knows that smell. And you can never get rid of it (other than tossing the tools and toolbox).

I used to tell my motorcycle friends, "Oh my pet squirrel took a dump, again!"

Sorry, but I could not give that speaker wire company another chance. Not after having to rewire an entire car setup (like 8 speakers). And reading about all their lawsuits, only strengthens my beliefs. I'm kinda stubborn, that way.

I'm pretty sure my stubbornness hasn't affected the company.

;)
 
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Doug G. said:
I have always maintained the metric system is not universally (if at all) superior. Celsius measurements are too coarse. Something like 1,383mm is ridiculous.

EDIT: However, it IS handy for working with small measurements. 2mm is easier to visualize than 0.0787402 inches, for example. :D

Doug
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That's one of my two issues with the metric system; the units are either too small or too big.
Plus, when using it in casual/informal conversation, it just sounds pretentious.
"How tall are you?"
Casual: "Oh, about 5 foot seven."
Metric: "I'm precisely one point seven zero two meters tall."
 
Mr Boochie said:
I built some amp and subwoofer units for cars, way back in the last millennium. I used the speaker wire that everyone used back then. It had clear insulation.

When that stupid wire corroded at the solder point, you could look down the length of the wire and see all the green rotted copper. I could bend the darn thing at the midpoint and break the wire.

I never used that stuff again. It's been Belden or some similar Pro-studio type ever since. I think you guys know the brand — they spent a lot of $$$ on advertisements and lawsuits.

:idea:
Click to expand...

I wonder if it's your Martian atmosphere. :D

The Monster Cable I bought in 1986 in clear jacket is still good. The copper is a little darker than it was so there is some oxidation but not much and no green.

Doug
 
Doug G. said:
I have always maintained the metric system is not universally (if at all) superior. Celsius measurements are too coarse. Something like 1,383mm is ridiculous.
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It's superior in the sense that the great majority of the world (and that really is the case, whether by population or number of countries) has now adopted it. Britain for some reason introduced metric long ago but has remained in transition status since the early 1970s and looks set to spend another 50 to 100 years favouring miles and feet and pounds and ounces for general public consumption. Having been forced into metric when I first moved abroad, I did (and do) actually find it easier to work with, almost as soon as I had to use it. You might find 1,383 mm ridiculous but centimetres and metres do exist: I don't really find that so conceptually different from inches, feet, and yards. These days, I don't readily understand the more detailed fractions of an inch, if I ever did. Decimal places are simpler to me.

That said, there are many instances of metric usage by Americans, sometimes without really even realizing they're doing it, and conversely, metric sizes outside the US that are actually Imperial sizes in disguise. At least, I assume that's why we see 6.35 mm. It corresponds to 1/4". And other cases where Imperial is just used anyway. When I buy a monitor or screen in Japan, the size is specified in inches.

I'm not sure what you have in mind when you say Celsius measurements are too coarse. For weather, I see it given either in whole units or for detailed record keeping, such as daily recorded minimums and maximums, to one decimal place. That seems good enough to me, and decimals can be as detailed as you like.
 
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tarior said:
Casual: "Oh, about 5 foot seven."
Metric: "I'm precisely one point seven zero two meters tall."
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Metric doesn't prevent anyone from saying "about". Here, body height is given in centimetres, not metres, and weight in kilograms. It doesn't come across as difficult or pretentious, because everyone knows body heights in cm and weights in kg. In Britain, I'd give my height in feet + inches and body weight in stone, though I wouldn't expect you to know what 11 stone 4 corresponds to. Also liquid measures (Imperial) are significantly different from liquid measures (American), so when you and I say a cup, a pint or a gallon, we'd be talking about different amounts, and as far as I remember, British people don't use fluid ounces at all in normal conversation, or certainly not to talk about drink sizes. Metric is the common language, when it comes down to it.
 
Tonoje said:
Metric doesn't prevent anyone from saying "about". Here, body height is given in centimetres, not metres, and weight in kilograms. It doesn't come across as difficult or pretentious, because everyone knows body heights in cm and weights in kg. In Britain, I'd give my height in feet + inches and body weight in stone, though I wouldn't expect you to know what 11 stone 4 corresponds to. Also liquid measures (Imperial) are significantly different from liquid measures (American), so when you and I say a cup, a pint or a gallon, we'd be talking about different amounts, and as far as I remember, British people don't use fluid ounces at all in normal conversation, or certainly not to talk about drink sizes. Metric is the common language, when it comes down to it.
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I love how metric people get so offended by those who don't like metric. I know metric reasonably well, and can readily do the rough conversions in my head. Never the less, I still prefer the US non-metric measurements.
 
tarior said:
I love how metric people get so offended by those who don't like metric.
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I'm not offended by people not liking metric. But it's baffling you'd consider it pretentious to give body height in metric - which I doubt people in non-metric countries would do anyway unless they've arrived recently - and support the point with a contrived and unlikely example. An attempt at humour?
 
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Tonoje said:
I'm not offended by people not liking metric. But it's baffling you'd consider it pretentious to give body height in metric - which I doubt people in non-metric countries would do anyway unless they've arrived recently - and support the point with a contrived and unlikely example. An attempt at humour?
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It was just an example, perhaps slightly exaggerated in order to illustrate the point.
 
The key thing with any measurement system is that they are all as random as anything else. I could walk outside, grab a random stick off the ground and decide its my standard for volume, weight, and length and then make up units that are arbitrary multiples of those. It would be every bit as functional as any other system. Whether its intuitive or whether the standard makes sense is totally unrelated.
 
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