wiring and splicing stuff

[greatmaul]

Not a farkle, per se, but part of many a farkle installation is wiring. and.... I suck at it.

I keep wiring up leds and using those ridiculous blue splices that you can buy anywhere,

and they just don't work. The lights go on and off, and if you wiggle the wires they come back on. So I clip the wire off and try again, and now I have so many of them there's hardly room to smash the tank back down. I need better stuff, and I'm not too keen on soldering stuff.
So, I'm wondering... how do you wire stuff up?

[ecr959]

Hello Greatmaul.

I can only tell you to give learning to solder another try. I have done lots and lots of soldering in the last 30 yrs, its easy. I use a low-watt iron, fresh solder, I use clips for helping me hold things together, I use little pieces of heat shrink tubing for insulating the connections. It ends up a solid connection and with heat shrink on it , it looks like a pro job.

Get a small soldering kit from Radio Shack, they're not expensive at all. Make sure it brings a solder-sucker. And then I'm sure Youtube has videos on how to solder. Watch more than one, so you are sure that the advice is good.
I can recommend these other websites, you can search to see if they have clear , easy advice and instructions on "HowTo Solder".

• http://www.howcast.com - one of the best how-to sites on the web. They show videos.
• http://www.ehow.com is another one.
• http://www.Instructibles.com is another one.
• http://www.howtogeek.com yeah, its a funny name, but the stuff you can learn here is excellent.

I hope this helps you reconsider.

[JWR]

ecr959 covered it pretty good.

It is skill that you will use the rest of your life.

[greatmaul]

Ok, you guys are both right. Thanks for the links ecr959 and JWR for the reinforcement. I *am* kind of tired of having to be embarrassed by my ridiculous wiring jobs.

[ecr959]

Here's a pic of a solder-sucker. Its in his right hand.

[Water Warrior 2]

Old guy needs to know. What is the purpose of a solder-sucker?

[ecr959]

When you melt solder, you need to suck away the excess solder. Sometimes when you are redoing a connection, you would first melt and suck away the old solder, before applying the fresh new solder.

[Water Warrior 2]

Originally Posted by ecr959

When you melt solder, you need to suck away the excess solder. Sometimes when you are redoing a connection, you would first melt and suck away the old solder, before applying the fresh new solder.

Sort of like a mini vacuum cleaner for liquid solder ??

[Water Warrior 2]

Originally Posted by Water Warrior

Sort of like a mini vacuum cleaner for liquid solder ??

Ok, now I get it. Just did a search and found out how/why it works. Cool little tool. :2tup: :2tup:

[alantf]

Just one thing more - If you buy solder, make sure it's the type that contains its own flux. :2tup: