Soldering copper to galvanized wire.

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Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^^^h2so4

My dad taught me about that years ago.

See Johnnie in the lab, see Johnnie on the floor...

For what he thought was H20 was H2SO4.

Thanks for the advise all.

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:37 am

You can save a lot of trouble by using that new fang dingled thingo the telephone Rolling Eyes

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^^ But talking to someone thousands of miles away with the same power that lights your night light, (5 watts) makes it worthwhile.

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:48 am

You can solder to copper and you can solder to zinc. Zinc coated gutters are soldered together on a regular basis.
Pretinning is not needed.
You don't need gas, just a 400 watt soldering iron. Clean everything with 200 sandpaper. Wrap stranded around galvanized. Flux it all. Heat with iron. Touch solder to the other side of joint. The solder should flow. Don't blow and don't move. That's it.

If you don't have a proper iron, you can propane it. Same deal, just use the torch. If the insulation flames, don't blame me. Cold solder joints are from just that. Cold.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^^ Thats part of my problem, cold ambient temperature.

I hate to admit it, but I am going to go the KD route. I am going to use a copper clamp with lots of conductive grease. (I will try and solder it in the spring when the temps warm up)

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:05 am

All these replies whilst I experimented in the shed Laughing

Some evil stuff called 'Baker's Soldering Fluid' (40% Zinc Chloride solution) was used in my first attempt to soft solder a Cu single strand wire to a galvanised roofing clout.

On my second attempt, I swabbed the area with an Electolube flux pen and also had a third attempt with plain old 60/40 resin cored solder.

All attempts to form good electrical and mechanical joints were successful. However, it should be noted the galvanised nails were fairly new and shiny and the copper wire recently had the sheath stripped, so was bright and clean.

Use enough heat (as previously mentioned) and ensure the surfaces to be soldered are cleaned of grease, surface oxide and other contaminants. Cleanliness is extremely important.

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:48 am

@Paster

Do be aware that that any galvanised material when heated will put of very bad gasas, symptoms can be from mild irritation to metal fume fever which is horrible sickness lasting days. Long term exposure can cause all kinds of horrible things but if you are doing it just once you should be OK so long as you take care to avoid the fumes

Take a look at this information before you go and do it.

Sometimes one can never leave their day job Wink

but I would hate to see you get sick from doing it without having told you

Not quite a Newb Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 44

@muru: please dont drive the pastor crazy, your data sheet tells about dangers of welding, which is way out of reach of pastors possibilities.

@pastor: had the same problem years ago. You simply cant solder these materials, but you can try Wink

When trying remove the zink coating completly (rather by grinding paper than H2SO4) then wrap the wires thoroughly, apply lots of heat and use a good soldering flux. The solder has to melt when touching the wires without extra heat applied, thats the secret.

If you are more pragmatic, do it as KD suggests.

** ACCOUNT CLOSED ** Joined: 19 Sep 2007 Posts: 262

why dont you just use a zinc plate 20x20 instead of the chicken wire? Shocked

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

I used every flux and solder combo I possess. I used every iron and torch I own. I kicked the dog 47 times. I gave up this morning and and went with...

Wrap, crush, and tape

Click

It is done. Laughing

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:33 pm

LOL I would have done it without reporting it here, now KD will ride your case for at least a week Laughing

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:08 pm

kleindoofy wrote:

To tell you the truth, I don't have the vaguest what you're talking about. Ham radio?

What has ham got to do with chickens kd? Bacon I understand because of the eggs. But ham?

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:50 am

I think he was trying to fry potatoes to go with the ham and eggs... Shocked

A possible simple fix might be JB Weld (I'd try it on a sample first)

This product is used for certain environments. I don't know that it has a small enough gauge for what you are doing (chicken wire).

The other product I know of is CADWELD, but is probably way out of your price range! It was a real cool process to watch. Cool

EDITed for better description

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:02 pm

H2SO4 is sulfuric, yes?

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:20 pm

At nearly $11 per square foot, you have to really want it.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

@Joe. Yes.

@Luckey, I could not find a "drool" emoticon, but I would have certainly used it seeing that stuff!

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:25 am

I'm always a little worried about high rf voltage hotspots when people start talking about using fences as a ground. Since moving from a house where I had garden space for a 1/2 wave dipole on 160m to one where I can barely accommodate one for 10, I've found the magnetic loop is my friend, and a whole lot easier to build than I imagined.

[edit] Ah, you're burying the fencing wire. Personally, I'd use a crimping plate to connect the copper conductor to it. Keep in mind that if the fencing has any aluminium content at all, the copper will react with it.

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:23 pm

There is a group here

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/5559

And it mentions using chicken wire and #14 wire and a Weller soldering gun.

Are these guys of any help?

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