Bottlehead Forum
Other Gear => Phono => Topic started by: Aural Robert on July 03, 2012, 03:18:51 PM
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I'm putting used Rega arm wiring into a different Rega RB250 and when the harness was removed from the original arm the wires were snipped. This stuff is awfully thin, my wire stripper doesn't go that small and I'm not sure how to strip them to solder them onto the next fiddly bit. I do have a solder pot. But there is not a lot of slack in the length of the wires and therefore NO room for error on my behalf, so I can't guess here I need to do it right the first time. Has anyone done this before? What is my best bet?
I have lurked on this board for years and know the knowledge base here is extremely talented, thus my post.
Any suggestions? TIA.
Aural Robert.
... HELP I need somebody ...
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I think the solder pot is your best shot if you can find a way to make it reach
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The stock rega arm wire, yes? Yuck. Breaks very easily and you have little room to work so ... I would try using heat from your soldering iron. Crank it up but dont actually touch the insulation with it just get right up next to it with the iron tip and see if the radiant heat will shrink the insulation back. If that doesnt work, maybe just touch it with the hot iron. Another alternative is holding a bead of solder on the iron tip and kind of using that as a solder pot. Betcha atleast one of the above will work but take it slow on the amount of heat because that insulation may shrink back fast.
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There are wire strippers that will go to that size wire. It might take a metric size.
You don't want to hear my suggestion but I'm putting it out there anyway... You should pull new stranded, flexible wire. Strip and tin the ends before pulling. Use the existing wire to pull in the new. A little bit of slack inside the arm tube is not a problem.
Once you have the cartridge end finished you can trim and finish the table end.
Edit: I looked, it can be had for a couple of dollars a foot, $20 for the four wires, color coded and the end clips already soldered on. Cheap to get it right.
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There are wire strippers that will go to that size wire. It might take a metric size.
You don't want to hear my suggestion but I'm putting it out there anyway... You should pull new stranded, flexible wire. Strip and tin the ends before pulling. Use the existing wire to pull in the new. A little bit of slack inside the arm tube is not a problem.
Once you have the cartridge end finished you can trim and finish the table end.
Exactly right! Especially with that Rega internal wire. But if you gotta work with what you got, then you gotta work with what you got = no appropriate strippers and existing wire.
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be smart ---go with grainger's suggestion
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Grainger's right, and you may even hear some improvement in sound. But I've had SOME success using a soldering iron for tonearm wires. I touch the insulation and spin the wire to melt it so it can be stripped. Mine is 30 Watts but I'd bet 15W would do it.