Thread: How to solder 6B&S

Apologies for this part of my post as I know it's not in the spirit of the forum, but I laughed so hard I had to be resuscitated.

muscat.jpg

Back to the OP's post.

Personally I'd cut the 6B&S and crimp lugs on the ends and bolt the 3 lugs together, using a nyloc. That way you can get a good heat shrink over the joint and you can arrange the take off exactly how you want it. Unless you don't want any more stuff in your life crimping sets for uninsulated lugs are pretty cheap. These will do the job ANDERSON PLUG HAND CRIMPING CRIMPER TOOL RATCHET 1.25 - 16 | eBay.

If you don't want to cut, then for me the next best option would be to use "Y , Breach, or T" branch joint crimps, I've only seen these as part of a potted joint set for buried cable, you wouldn't use the potting kit as it would probably end up a lot larger than what you can hide. I'd go to my local electrical wholesaler for this kit, but it won't be cheap. Haymans or L&H (as well as a dozen others) in Aust.

If you are going to solder, the video above is good. I'm not sure they stress the main trick though, you use as high a power as you can, put a dab of solder on the iron, this is not for joining the wires but is to increase the contact area so the heat can get in. In the video you can see where they do this when they melt the stick of solder directly onto the iron. Once you have this then get the stick directly onto the wire, as to get a good quick joint you need the flux in the stick to clean the wires. If you melt the stick onto the iron the flux takes awhile to get onto the wires or just burns away. This way you can get a quick joint and not burn the insulation away. If you've sourced the solder locally check that they've given you flux cored solder. I worked in Indonesia 20 or so years ago and they had never heard of the stuff.

It took me countless times having sparkies show me how to solder earth joints before I realized what they were doing. I think most of them took the flux thing for granted.

Cheers Glen.

Originally Posted by weeds

I have always soldered all my 6B&S with a small gas butane flame........never had issues.

I am with Weeds on this. I use a small gas torch and have soldered battery cables and terminals no trouble.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

This is how I've always done it

Flite Test - Solder Thick Gauge Wire - FAST TIP - YouTube

That's great thanks Pedro

I have been told by Sparkies that a crimped fitting is superior to a soldered one especially when there is a high current draw.
You can get a hydraulic crimper for $30-$40 on eBay that is quite adequate for domestic use, I bought an 8 ton one and it came with quite a few different sized jaws that it is easy to use and it does a nice neat/tight crimp.

Many thanks to all that have replied and to Pedro for the vid
I've come away with a couple of cracking ideas for soldering lugs when the time comes, however we've gone off on a bit of a tangent, many have assumed I'm adding lugs, I'm not.

What I'm hoping to do is to break into a 6B&S run that goes end to end on the vehicle and create a 6B&S spur / branch of twin cable some where along its length. Apart from terminating the working end of the spur, unless I'm missing some thing I don't see how crimping features in attaching the spur wires to the main run.

For a soldered add in I'm fairly clued up on how make a mechanically secure joint, its applying sufficient heat in the right spot to solder neatly and efficiently without trashing every thing that's stumping me.

With one exception I don't see any option other than soldering and soldering is how DriveSafe constructed the original, so if its good enough for him .........

One other possibility that originated from DriveSafe and that I may be taking totally out of context might be to use a 120 amp Anderson as a junction. The barrel of the lugs are big enough to take 2x 6B&S each so it would be a neat way of creating a junction. I'd cut the main run at the appropriate point and insert an Anderson IIRC 120 amp along with the spur wires for a really and tidy job. However I'm not sure if its advisable to interrupt the main run in such a manner, perhaps a grown up could give me the benefit of their wisdom.

Originally Posted by weeds

I have always soldered all my 6B&S with a small gas butane flame........never had issues.

After the debacle of my practice attempt I was wondering if gas was a better way to go
Does any one have any recommendations for a butane iron?

Before I asked the original question I spent most of the day on line looking for answers. I didn't find what I was looking for but I made some interesting discoveries about crimping and soldering.

DriveSafe mentioned the following:

Despite the general misconception testing has shown that solder joints are 13% stronger than crimped

The makers of the Anderson connectors recommend both crimping and soldering as being equally applicable to the product

Crimping being more suitable for auto use than soldering is a myth. Joints that fail do so because they are incorrectly supported.

a good crimp or a good solder are ..... well, all good

Originally Posted by Dorian

Apologies for this part of my post as I know it's not in the spirit of the forum, but I laughed so hard I had to be resuscitated.

muscat.jpg

You've completely lost me on that one, perhaps I need to get on the turps for it to become clear

Originally Posted by Dorian

Personally I'd cut the 6B&S and crimp lugs on the ends and bolt the 3 lugs together, using a nyloc. That way you can get a good heat shrink over the joint and you can arrange the take off exactly how you want it.

Thanks Dorian that's a cracking idea

Originally Posted by Dorian

If you don't want to cut, then for me the next best option would be to use "Y , Breach, or T" branch joint crimps

I've never come across any thing like that. I'll have a look on line but it sounds as if it may be a bit too big for the available space

Originally Posted by loanrangie

My soldering/rework station has a hot air gun for surface mount chip soldering/removing, this gets hot enough to solder most size cables.
I wrap solder around the cable push it into the fitting and heat til it melts the solder.

loanrangie I have one of these. Have you been successful using this on 6B&S?

Originally Posted by Ooops

loanrangie I have one of these. Have you been successful using this on 6B&S?

Not tried 6bs but it does 6mm auto easily, definitely gets hot enough.

Find a short piece of clean new 3/8" or 1/2" copper tube, cut off a section as long as your wanted branch line crimp. Split the tube lengthways with a hacksaw, strip the insulation off your main cable and lay the branch alongside. Open up the tube, then put it over the join and wrap the tube around it using pliers or vice grips. Once it is reasonably tight borrow a suitable crimping tool and give it some loving. Insulate the join well.