Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ben Ridgeway on October 31, 2019 at 4:35pm

Scuff the back of pot before soldering
Gives the metal a tooth and removes any contaminates

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on November 1, 2019 at 3:19am

dont try to solder the wire in one go. do as Ben said. scuff the back of the pot and get a hot iron and use flux if the solder doesnt have enough/any and don't hold the iron on the pot for too long. get a blob of solder sticking to the back first then add the wires. 

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on November 2, 2019 at 5:48am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-O2TGoArrY

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Permalink Reply by James Pobog on November 2, 2019 at 3:34pm

Never thought of using sinks. That's going in the repertoire...

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on November 2, 2019 at 10:03am

Okay, if you think it through, you will realize the only reason to solder to the back of a pot is that it is a convenient location to solder one leg of the capacitor and a ground wire or two. That being said, there is no requirement to solder these things to the top of the pot. Just solder them together hanging.

Option two (and this is a lot easier than you might think). Take a small screwdriver or scribe and bend the tabs holding the pot cover on. Gently remove the cover and solder away. You won't cool anything with this approach. This is the method I use (after cooking a brand new pot).

Tip: Don't use a monster sized soldering iron. A 25 watt iron is usually plenty. Also make sure you are using rosin core solder 60/40 works great and doesn't take a lot of heat.

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Permalink Reply by James Pobog on November 2, 2019 at 3:36pm

Rosin core check

Pot of flux check.

Scuff check

Gonna try the screwdriver trick on one I've cooked, I'll learn something seeing the inside of a pot too...

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Permalink Reply by James Pobog on November 3, 2019 at 6:50am

I pulled the cans off two burnt pots and soldered. Man, was that easy. Gonna remember that.

Question about the can metal...is it resistant to fatigue breaking, or does it have more than 2 bends in it?

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on November 3, 2019 at 8:51am

I think that as long as you only bend them just enough to get the can off the pot, you should have a half dozen or more bend attempts.

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Permalink Reply by François on November 2, 2019 at 10:42am

And don't apply the flux to the hot iron like Tim Sway does. I just use a piece of wood to put the flux on surfaces. And for wires, I just poke them in the paste before tinning them.

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Permalink Reply by James Pobog on November 2, 2019 at 3:39pm

I use a long stick cotton swab, stick end, not the cotton.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on November 3, 2019 at 10:36am

Some pots come with a tab on the front side edge. I bend them to the side, scuff and solder to the tab. This keeps the heat in the tab and side of the pot instead of right over the element. If no tab, I solder to the side of the pot.

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