Introduction
I’m not a huge fan of breadboarding. For many, it’s been the tried and true way to quickly hack a circuit together, but somehow it rubs me the wrong way: it’s too impermanent, I’m terrible at arranging the components just right. I always run out of just the wires that I need. And I’ve experienced bad contacts a number of times.
So when I’m too impatient to have a PCB made, I like to solder a prototype board together instead.
In the past, I’d use regular wires with plastic isolation, but those can be a pain to strip, even with a semi-decent stripping tool.
Recently, I switched to enamel magnet wire, and it has been a pleasure.
This blog post simply describes and shows the process that I use to solder magnet wire. For completeness, I also give an overview of my soldering setup.
When it comes to soldering, I still consider myself a beginner. I’m probably doing a lot of things wrong, and improvements are most definitely possible! So feel free to reach out on Twitter if you have any comments!
Soldering Enamel Magnet Wire
For me, soldering magnet wire is a 6-step process:
Boil away a millimeter or 2 of enamel without cutting the wire off the spool. (~1min00 mark in video below.) I use a helping-hands soldering aid to hold the wire. The soldering iron is pointed down and I poke the end of the wire into a blob of solder that’s the tip of the iron. Make sure that the blob of solder is fresh: the flux of the solder will make the wire repel less. After a few second, you’ll see tiny bubbles at the contact between enamel and solder. That’s the flux boiling away the enamel. Make sure you clean the soldering iron tip after enamel removal! The enamel makes the solder dirty. Solder the end of the wire to the source contact point on the PCB. (~1min50 mark) At this point, the wire still hasn’t been cut to length. Since the wire is still of ‘unlimited’ length, I typically don’t need a tweezer to hold the tip of the wire in place: it will take a bit of time for the wire to heat up, and by then, it should be fastened and ready to let go. Route the wire to the destination contact point on the PCB and cut to length. Magnet wire is very pliable and easy to put exactly where you want it. I often use tweezer as a post around which I bend the wire. Bend the new end of the wire away from the PCB. (~2min30 mark) By bending it from the surface of the PCB, I have a lot of space for the soldering iron to boil of the second end of the wire. Boil away the second end of the wire. (~2min50) Solder the second end of the wire where it needs to be. (~3min25 mark) Unlike step 2, tweezer are usally essential here, because the wire will often already be laying flush against the PCB, which makes it hard to handle with just your fingers.
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