Advice on repairing the phone wire sabre mask cords

[Purple Fencer]

Ahh. See what you've been missing?

You mean how to do the coaster flip??? I still have one of them!

And I end up doing it when I go to someplace like Outback with the wife...the servers have never seen it!

*sigh* Stupid armorer's tricks!

[Wanda]

Beware the resistant on connection, high resistant will be create in the connection of phone wire and clip, almostly near to /over than 1 Ohm, I think mic. wire is much better than the phone wire. 2x1.5mm2 mic. cord with the clip has only 0.4-0.5 Ohm.

[foily]

Those ColdHeat thingies and their ilk are utter junque. The only real soldering irons are:

Weller WTCPT with the Magnetrol tip system, get a "7" or an "8" tip and you'll get good. For life. Those are about $100 new.

Adjustable Wellers, I don't like them because it's too easy to adjust for more heat until you're using it at about 900 degrees and then you wonder why flash-frying insulation is crapping up your connections and insulation etc is melting inches away from your solder joint. They cost more then the Magnetrol ones too, but people do get them, and they're good irons, just keep the heat at 700-800 degrees F.

There's a simple plug in the wall Weller they sell at hardware stores, costs about $35, since it's a Weller it's not that bad an iron. Tip seems to heat to about 700 degrees which if you have to pick a single temperature, is the one.

Isotip portable irons, they cost about $70-$80 and run off of ni-cad batteries you charge up, they're hotter, about 800 degrees, and are great to use where electricity's not available. Pretty decent irons - make sure you stick with Isotip brand.

Weller makes a butane-powered portable iron, it's neat. You can solder and also use it to shrink heatshrink tubing. Since it runs on butane, no need for electrical power, or it frees up a socket for other stuff. These run about $80.

Hakko makes essentially copies of the Weller stuff, there are three major quality brands in soldering irons, and they're (1) Weller, (2) Hakko, and (3) Iso-Tip for a battery powered portable iron. None of the others are worth it so don't waste your money and time.

www.elecraft.com has an excellent soldering tutorial, the best I've seen anywhere. It's free to download, and well worth reading.

Also, good solder helps - the "gold standard" is Kester with #44 flux, while there are other types, Ersin Multicore, Kester silver solder, which have their adherants.

If I get as good at fencing as I am with a "slobbering" iron, I will be very happy!