Soldering Neutrik Jacks

[Cupboard]

And load the tip of the iron with a good blob of solder before you touch it against the terminal...

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

You should never solder like this; you will contaminate the joint. By all means make sure the tip is tinned but is you go the 'blob' route all you will do is transfer oxidised solder to the joint.

 

When I'm soldering, I tend to put a small blob on the iron which is then touched to the back of the thing I'm soldering. The solder isn't there for me to paint it on to the connector (which always goes badly!) but to provide a better contact to get the heat across. It means that the area I want to get hot heats up more quickly which is quite handy.

 

If the original poster is trying to paint, then yes, definitely avoid that and you'll find life a) a lot easier and b) that your joints last longer.

 

e2a: the mono Neutrik jack I was soldering last night didn't give me any issues, but it was a re-soldering job where the cable had been killed which might have helped.

[Brian]

The real trick for most connectors is to tin them with solder *before* you try to solder the wire in place. Like that you have a clean surface to solder to and you're not going to have to heat the wire up too much causing insulation shrink-back.

[Andrew C]

I must say, that with all the connectors I've soldered, I don't remember having problems with ANY Neutriks. They are genuine aren't they?

[timsabre]

I must say, that with all the connectors I've soldered, I don't remember having problems with ANY Neutriks. They are genuine aren't they?

 

It's only jacks which are difficult, because to solder the "sleeve" terminal you have to heat up a big lump of metal. Not like XLRs which have a nice little terminal.

I agree with the blob of solder method for better heat transfer, but you need to add more fresh solder to actually make the joint.

[tolley1466]

I think at the minute I am using a 60/40 mix, but it does seem to be rather low quality solder and very 'watery' (flux??). I will look at buying some higher quality solder. I think the key is possibly to heat up the jack as much as possible with the soldering iron as well as the tinned cable to get a good seal.

 

 

I wouldn't heat it up "as much as possible" as this can sort-of "tire" out your iron leaving you with no heat and wating for it to heat up again. Then again this is from experience with an old Weller iron. However, from experience, heating a terminal up as much as possible sometimes melts the plastic surrounding the terminal which isn't a good thing. Heating it up to a certain extent is a must to get it to stick but not holding the iron there for 5 minutes.

 

ALSO, make sure you tin your connectors and wires as well as having a little bit of solder on your iron, as I've found this will transfer the heat a lot easier and quicker.

[ChazHS]

if you are having issues with them might I suggest a bigger iron tip and a higher temp iron? I've always found Neutrik products (all of them) easy to solder.

[Andrew C]

It's only jacks which are difficult, because to solder the "sleeve" terminal you have to heat up a big lump of metal.

I've done thousands, and they shouldn't be "difficult" at all. There is absolutely no need to file a Neutric connector to get a good joint. Now, the black metal 3.5mm ones CPC sell, they are difficult! Don't buy them, splash the cash and get the gold flashed ones.

[TimmyP1955]

I use a 25W Hakko Dash 454 and have no trouble.

 

Wet the tip with solder (so the heat transfers to the connector), then heat the connector and thoroughly tin it with solder - should take about 3 seconds.

 

Wet the tip and tin the wire (saturate it) - should take about 2-4 seconds, depending on the wire size.

 

Wet the tip, put the wire and connector together, heat then with the iron until the solder on both melts and blends together (should take 3-5 seconds, depending on the wire size and if it's still hot). remove the iron, and keep the work completely still until the joint has cooled.

[dbuckley]

If your iron has sufficient power and can maintain the right temperature, then jacks are a doddle. If the iron doesn't its a losing battle.

 

Tin the wire, get a blob molton on the jack metallic bit, and then introduce the wire, and it'll all fuse beautifully.

[Cheeseweasel]

And load the tip of the iron with a good blob of solder before you touch it against the terminal...

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

You should never solder like this; you will contaminate the joint. By all means make sure the tip is tinned but is you go the 'blob' route all you will do is transfer oxidised solder to the joint.

 

When I'm soldering, I tend to put a small blob on the iron which is then touched to the back of the thing I'm soldering. The solder isn't there for me to paint it on to the connector (which always goes badly!) but to provide a better contact to get the heat across. It means that the area I want to get hot heats up more quickly which is quite handy.

 

If the original poster is trying to paint, then yes, definitely avoid that and you'll find life a) a lot easier and b) that your joints last longer.

 

e2a: the mono Neutrik jack I was soldering last night didn't give me any issues, but it was a re-soldering job where the cable had been killed which might have helped.

 

That's exactly what I meant! The blob of solder stays on the tip of the iron and is literally just used to transfer heat across to the terminal (coupling the iron to the joint much more efficiently than simply touching a small part of the tip against the jack). I'm definitely not encouraging anyone to paint, drip or wipe hot solder onto a joint and hope it sticks! Sorry if that wasn't clear.