need help soldering

[snatchss454]

I pre-tinned the grounds and Im trying to solder them to the volume pot but I cant get the solder to stick to the volume pot. What the hell am I doing wrong???

Ive $%&#ed around with it for so long I got careless and burned through another wire can someone please help???
Shane

[Twinfan]

Try heating the pot a bit first before trying to solder a blob to it.  This can help...

[hunter]

Turn the pot down to "0" when soldering, as the heat could otherwise mess up the taper.

Also I find it helps to use a bit of sand paper to roughen up the pot surface before soldering, much less heat needed in that case.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Turn the pot down to "0" when soldering, as the heat could otherwise mess up the taper.

Christoph - is that for real?
If so I never knew :o

I did know about the damage that excessive heat can cause to capacitors etc but that trick is new to me

[PhilKing]

Turn the pot down to "0" when soldering, as the heat could otherwise mess up the taper.

How would you know which end is zero before you solder it?  Do you mean move the wiper away from the area you are soldering?

[hunter]

Well, somebody told me  :oops:

The idea is that too much heat does kill pots, so says steve stevens:
http://www.musicianshotline.com/issue/features/200607_artist_stevens2.asp

Steve: The volume controls with these pickups are always 500k. I really do like the Gibson volume potentiometers, but I know a lot of people have problems with them because they’re nylon inside. But they just feel smoother. I’m pretty physical with my guitar, so if the volume control moves easily I’ll end up hitting it or something. What I like about the Gibson pots is that they do stay in place and have a smooth taper. One thing you have to be careful about is that people wire the pickup ground to the potentiometer.What that does is heat the pickup to a point where you can melt and degrade the internal stuff on the potentiometer. So, I wrap a small wire to the pot and then wrap that wire around the braids so I’m not putting a lot of solder on the back of the pot itself. I find they last longer that way.

Well, whatever, I try to be careful with too much heat anyways ...

[/i]

[hunter]

Turn the pot down to "0" when soldering, as the heat could otherwise mess up the taper.

How would you know which end is zero before you solder it?  Do you mean move the wiper away from the area you are soldering?

well, turn full counterclockwise = 0

[Philly Q]

It might be that your soldering iron just isn't powerful enough?

I find it easiest to use, say, a 40W iron for soldering grounds - with a less powerful iron you have to apply heat for ages and the whole pot gets hot.  A more powerful iron seems to heat a small area quickly so the solder melts straight away and the job's done.

[PhilKing]

Turn the pot down to "0" when soldering, as the heat could otherwise mess up the taper.

How would you know which end is zero before you solder it?  Do you mean move the wiper away from the area you are soldering?

well, turn full counterclockwise = 0

Not really, it depends which end is hot and which is ground.  I was being facetious or pedantic, depending on your point of view, guess I need to make it more obvious  :roll: