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Can't Solder Speaker Cable!!

T

Trackr

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
1,786
Okay, I am pulling my hair out here!

I have been trying to solder my speaker cable for days now.. and the fucking cable is simply impervious to solder!

I need to solder it because I have it dug into the walls but it is too short to reach my new speakers (because I know someone will ask).

I have tried:
1.) Soldering it regularly with my usual solder. - Just falls off
2.) Sanding the cable. - Does nothing
3.) Buying solder with Flux inside. - No difference
4.) Using Rosin Flux paste. - The paste just melts in seconds and runs down the cable
5.) Dipping the cable in Hydrochloric Acid! - No fucking difference

I can't even think of a metal that has the properties to be 100% impervious to lead, copper and tin.

I think I need to submit it as a Nobel Prize-winning discovery.

Will someone help me!?
 
Just put a plate on the wall and use it to couple to your new wire.

Or get some posilocks.
 
Why can't you just splice the extra wire onto it? The purists will grit their teeth at the thought of that but taking one wire and twisting it around the other wire works just fine. Been doing it for year in home and car audio.
 
I have never seen speaker wire you couldn't solder, do you know what brand it is? someone like monster might deliberately make it unsolderable so you have to buy new. but yeah just splice it, its supposed to conduct to speaker terminals it will conduct fine to a splice.
 
could it be coated with something ? can you tin it ?
 
Is the wire you are trying to solder to flow onto connected to anything which may be acting like a heat sink?

What gauge is the wire and what kind of iron are you using?
 
raynman68 said:
Is the wire you are trying to solder to flow onto connected to anything which may be acting like a heat sink?

What gauge is the wire and what kind of iron are you using?
Click to expand...

I'm using a Dremel Versatip.
http://www.dremeleurope.com/dremelocs-uk/product/2718/330/dremel®-versatip™/dremel®-versatip™

It's not a heat issue. I took a 6" strip and tried soldering it to itself.. no go.

I ended up using a buttload of flux paste, as well as only using the copper-colored wire (the speaker cable came in two channels, one aluminum-colored, one copper-colored) for both channels and regular solder.

It might have been the flux-solder not reacting well to the flux paste. Too much flux?

It's not perfect, but it seems like it will hold. The problem is, I have to splice RCA connectors onto the other ends of the wire for all 4 speakers.. because my receiver takes RCA. I have no idea how I'm going to manage that..
 
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