troubles with turrets from CE dist?

[markmalin]

Just curious...this is the first full turret board I've done - I normally use eyelets.  I bought the turrets from CE Dist, but for the life of me I can't get the solder to wet properly.  They just all seem like cold soldier joints.  Before I go much further, I wanted to ask if anyone's dealt with this?  I can ditch these boards, drill new ones and buy turrets from Hoffman (which I will next time!) but for the sake of saving these boards, any advice?  I'm trying flux paste but what a hassle for EVERY turret.  Thoughts??


Thanks guys!
Mark.

[EL34]

Bad plating is the cause


Saw someone on facebook saying the same thing

http://hoffmanamps.com/MyStore/catalog/BoardBuilding.htm

[markmalin]

Bad plating is the cause


Saw someone on facebook saying the same thing

http://hoffmanamps.com/MyStore/catalog/BoardBuilding.htm

argh....   


Well, I just ordered 150 from you :)  Now it's off to the shop to cut and drill new boards.  Live and learn...

[John]

A good while back I had bought a generic turret board from AES. It was like the Fender tag strip but with lugs installed. I had the same problem. By the time I'd get 'em hot enough to melt solder, the fiber board would start smoking. Lesson learned.

[EL34]

The plating on the lugs is junk

I had a bad batch about 15 years ago from the guy that makes mine for me

Solder would not stick
He found out the plater had screwed up and sent me a new bacth



they are brass inside and made on a screw machine
then my guy sends them off to be plated

[markmalin]

The plating on the lugs is junk

I had a bad batch about 15 years ago from the guy that makes mine for me

Solder would not stick
He found out the plater had screwed up and sent me a new bacth

they are brass inside and made on a screw machine
then my guy sends them off to be plated

that's exactly what's happening.  The solder will not stick.  No matter how hot I get them.  It's a bugger because it's going to set the delivery of these two amps back about a week, but at least I know the ones I'm getting from Hoffman are going to work -- and it gave me the chance to cut and drill out some translucent red fiber board I had bought :)  That should "look the business" when it's done!

[EL34]

The custom lugs I have made have really nice coatings

[DummyLoad]

after enough repetitions of re-heating, the solder will eventually leech the Sn plating and solder not sticking issues surface. use the hole and bond parts and wires in them is a solution, but messy. 


the EL34 cathode bias princeton i was building suffered from the issue described above - reused and re-worked the original turret board a third time. it's now sitting in a corner awaiting a decision of disposition because it looks like s#!7 and some of the connections are dubious.


i doubled my workload because i was cheap... :-/


--pete

[markmalin]

i doubled my workload because i was cheap... :-/

--pete

I can relate :P


I'm really trying to do this right the first time.  I stewed and stewed about whether to try something else...like wire through the turrets like you said...or douse every connection in flux, but at the end of the day I kept telling myself "anything worth doing is worth doing right".  Not to mention someone is going to pay me a lot of money for this amp, so I've got to get it right and not have to lie awake wondering if a cold solder joint is going to show up during one of someone's gigs!  lol

[hardhead]

Be sure to make it a "fool me once"experience

[eleventeen]

Have you tried adding add'l liquid or paste flux?


That would utterly suck, to put the thing together and have the solder joints look like crap.

[markmalin]

Have you tried adding add'l liquid or paste flux?


That would utterly suck, to put the thing together and have the solder joints look like crap.

I did.  I ended up slobbering flux all over a couple turrets and finally after soldering was not able to forceably unwrap a wire (an old technician's trick to detect cold solder joints is to grab the wire with a needle nose and try to pull it off).  I couldn't get it off, but solder only seemed to wet into that section of the turret.  In other words, even though I smothered the entire turret with flux and heated it up like crazy, solder only stuck to the half of the turret where the wire was -- nothing would wet to the other half.  That's when I decided, for the amount of money that's being paid for these amps, I just can't deliver work like this and feel good about myself.  So I ordered new turrets and will completely rebuild the boards.

[EL34]

It's not worth messing with them


I have found that when the plating is not right, there's nothing you can do to get solder to stick