Soldering newb broke the thermistor wires

[laurie3d]

Hey Everyone,

I broke the thermistor wire when trying to solder and am looking for some help. Are there special soldering related tools I should be using to keep the wires in place? When twisting the thermistor wire to the other one, should it have been a tighter twist? I may have kept it too loose since I was afraid of breaking it from twisting it tighter.

I think I held the heat on too long since the solder would melt away and the wires would detach. I hadn't tightly twisted the thermistor wire to the other wire because I was afraid of breaking it. So it was loosely intertwined and didn't work so well.

I ended up trimming back the wires in an attempt to start fresh. Maybe I could cut the tubing back and try again? Any feedback would be great. I'm new to soldering.

Thanks for your help!!!

[Eric]

So long as there's enough wire left to try again, you can try again. Otherwise, you'll need a new thermistor.

Twisting is good on thicker wires for mechanical strength. On really thin wires, twisting is counterprodutive...the wire is weaker than the solder joint will be. There are oodles of soldering tutorials out there. This clip seems pretty close to what you want to do:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fopGW8T3Avs[/youtube]

What he's using there is called a "third hand", which is a frame with alligator clips mounted in a way to hold things for you. It's a useful accessory for soldering, but not essential. If you can't manage by yourself, you can draft someone else to hold the wires together while you touch it with the solder iron.

If you're using heat-shrink, remember to slip it over the wire before soldering.

[precisionpete]

I would suggest you try your hand at soldering something else first then tackle that tiny wire.

If your close to Orange County, Calif bring it over and I'll solder it for you.