What's the trick for removing the insulation from magnet wire?
dave
I'm also curious. I've tried holding it against a hot soldering iron, as recommended by one vendor, but that didn't work with the wire I was trying to use. I wound up scraping the insulation off with a hobby knife blade held perpendicular to the wire, on a hard surface. Not ideal.
I expect there are several methods, varying with what kind of insulation is to be removed.
Hi Dave, I use a soldering iron with a heated pool of solder on the tip.
You quickly dip the end of the magnet wire into the pool of solder and it instantly tins the end of the wire.
It's important to have the right heat, I have a heat adjustable soldering iron that I have set at about 800 degrees.
This method works great for me. When I had first started out trying to tin the ends of my magnet wires I used a soldering iron that did not get hot enough to melt the magnet wire's thermal coating so it was pretty frustrating at first.
Then I bought the heat adjustable iron and it worked like a charm with the higher heat.
Greg
Wow. The 63 tin/37 lead solder I prefer melts at 360F. If I hold the trigger of my Wen soldering gun down long enough, it might reach 800F but the tip would be glowing red and the tinning (melted solder) would oxidize.
James, I went and checked the specs on one of my #38 magnet wire packages.
It reads Insulation thermal breakdown for tinning Minimum 390 deg. C (734 deg. F) for 3 seconds.
So perhaps I am using my adjustable temp. soldering iron a little hot, however when I dip the magnet wire into the pool of solder on my tip it's only in there for a second or less.
I never have any problems with tinning magnet wires anymore. Like I did when my old soldering iron just wasn't getting hot enough.
Greg
I have one of those hot-pots, I'll have to put some solder in that, crank it up, and dip the magnet wire into the melted solder.
dave
Dave, that sounds like you would have to use way more melted solder than needed to perform this task.
Would your hot pot even get to the right heat temp that you need to do this?
Never mind the idea of sticking your fingers into while holding the magnet wire down into a hot pot!
Greg
It'll get up to 450c/840f. I figure I don't need much solder in it, just enough to dip the end of the wire to melt and tin.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08V161KKH
dave
First time I heard of that pot device. I've used solder methods as others. I'd surely make a mess with the pot. I try to use pre wired LEDs, the only thing I've ever used magnet wire for. With mediocre success.
I figure it'll take a puddle of solder in the hot-pot, maybe I'll tilt it slightly. It'll be a good use for some large diameter solder I have in my kit.
dave
I've had success using an emery board to scrap off the coating on the wire. Burning it off with solder never worked very well for me but I probably didn't have enough heat to be successful.
Result of my hot-pot:
IMG_0969.jpeg
I have 50-50 solid core solder, you can see the chunk I cut off to put into the pot. Once the solder flowed, I tilted the pot (put some stripwood underneath the back legs) so I got a puddle on one end of the pot.
IMG_0973.jpeg
That's not as hot as I expected, and the solder tended to skin over in the pot. But I was still able to poke some wire into it and then draw through the melted solder. It's hot above the hot-pot, I should probably wear gloves to do this.
Here's the result:
IMG_0971.jpeg
This is not magnet wire, but very thin hook-up wire, the photo was taken through my bench-mounted magnifier lens. I got a similar result with magnet wire, but I couldn't get a good photo.
So all-around, I'd rate this a success. It takes a while for the pot to get to temperature, but once it does, you can hold (3 seconds to melt the insulation) and drag the wire through the little puddle of melted solder. The result is tinned, and should be ready for soldering.
Oh, I'm sure the lead fumes will rot my brain (more than it already is...), so I ordered a fume extractor for the next time I use this.
add: a video that talks about soldering iron for melting, recommends 400c (and no more) on the iron. AND THEN, turn the iron back down from 400 when you're done tinning the leads so the tip doesn't burn out.
dave