How To Solder Really Small Wires

Solder the outside of the tab.

How to solder really small wires. You can buy hot wire strippers that essentially do just this. To make things a bit easier I chose to start from the centre of the board outwards and with the biggest parts before the smallest. If you tin the wires and the holes you will need very little or none additional solder.

Install the shrink wrap first solder the wires then slide the wrap to cover the solder shrink the wrap with a flame careful the wrap can shrink too much and split open then you will need to start over. Wrap that wire around you big iron near the tip with about 1 inch sticking out. Sold in the electronics department.

Remove the soldering iron and wait a few seconds to let the soldered connection cool and harden. When joining 2 larger gauge multi-strand wires together I normally spread the strands first and push the 2 wires together head to head then twist them so they dont come off easily. Theyll have a small hole where you insert the wire and they melt the insulation away.

Remove the insulation from both ends of the wires youll be soldering together. Unless a very specific flux is required that is not available as a wire solder core flux core wire solder is generally recommended. The longer you hold the iron to the tab the more the heat will travel up the metal tab.

If you can heat it to solder melting temps faster then you can touch and go and use less heat over-all. Using assisting hands or another form of clamp device is recommended for this process. Use your applicator of choice the jumper wire in my case to grab a tiny bit of solder any apply it to one of the solder pads on your PCB.

If the wire is stranded use your fingers to twist the strands together. Its now time to demonstrate how to solder wires together. Very thin like a hair enamel coated wire works when using a reasonably small soldering tip.