On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 23:21:13 +0100, "roy davidson"
wrote:

I just want to know how to do it before once
again I'm looking at blobs of solder refusing to bond with the cable.

Go to the bike shop and scrounge some crimp ends. They'll crimp with
narrow pliers (a narrow crimped band is stronger than an overall
flattened tube).

If you're a sparkie, then electrician's bootlace ferrules work fine
too.

Bike cable should soft-solder pretty easily. Degrease it, then use a
powerful active flux. Fluxite paste is enough, multicore isn't. If the
cable's new and clean you shouldn't need to use Baker's Fluid. A big
(=50W iron is useful)

If you're obsessive about your bike (about 90% of cyclists) you can
form a back splice instead. No one will ever notice, but it's 0.001g
lighter than adding that ferrule 8-)


For bigger cables than bikes, silver soldering is good. This will also
work happily on stainless or phosphor bronze wire cable. You'll need a
fluoride based flux, especially on stainless, but the joint is usually
very easy to make, so long as the cable's reasonably fresh and clean.
If it's old cable that has been out in the weather, either pickle it
clean first, or splice it. Don't braze wire cable - it reduces the
strength considerably.

Wire rope can't be soldered unless you remove any fibre centre core
first. Degrease carefully too.


--
Smert' spamionam