no worries on my end, Mike! we're jsut havin' fun!

from:

http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electrical/solder.htm

62Sn-36Pb-2Ag --- 354°F

63Sn-37Pb -------- 361°F

60Sn-40Pb -------- 368°F

the new lead free solders are similar... adding silver generally yields a lower melt point.

99.3Sn-0.7Cu ------------ 440°F

99.2Sn/3.0Ag/0.5Cu ---- 426°F


I like the idea of "solder school". Someone in a recent thread made fun of a Radio Shack employee that was proudly explaining he had completed the course/test... I pointed out that in my opinion it is a potentially valuable course of study. I don't think anyone took me seriously. :-(

best regards,
mike

Hey, and I'm not kidding... it seems like the Navy guys get great training.

best regards,
mike

I ended up just taking apart one connector on a prebuilt cable and switching the tip and ring. I used a LIVE WIRE brand cable. They have Neutrik connectors on them (sorry - Mike! Not that I don't believe you - I just used what I had available already!).

I had a lot of cleanup to do before I could even get to resoldering the connections because it seems that they built these cables with the "bigger the glob, the better the job" philosophy! after I cleaned up the solder points and re-tinned the cable ends I resoldered using 60/40 Rosin Core from Radio Shack (which I happen to have had on hand) and the new cables work perfectly.

thanks for everyone's help and suggestions.

FWIW - I think solder school is an absolute must for anyone who does soldering for a living and actually, it's a requirement here at work for the technicians who work in the labs. I wish we had had a soldering class of some kind in college - we did enough "glob jobs" on our projects!

LOL! and he probably walked to school and back home again in the snow, uphill, both ways! Just like mine did!

Id save some money and just clip the end and re-solder it to correct spec.  Takes 20 minutes... maybe 45 if it's been that long with the soldering iron

Last thing I bought at the shack was some of those 9v batteries and the clips that go on them, to replace for a customer's gate alarm. She left the dead battery in it....

OK... If this was mine..... I'd take an existing cable, (a good one from a music store), open teh ends to see the connections and using a desoldering tool with a nice soldering iron or gun, remove the existing solder. Then using a pair of needle nose pliers, I would remove the wires carefully and swap them. Resolder the connections and you're done.

Having a bench vice is very handy. They make some small ones with suction cups. Also using 40/60 rosin core solder is plenty good for electronic work on cables, and parts. Silver solder I thought required a much higher temp to flow. I used some on a non electronic project and with a torch, I needed MAPP gas to work effectively.  Since you have worked with solder before, just a reminder...let the joint cool for a few seconds before moving or testing it's physical connection... you don't want any cold solder joints in your signal path...or anywhere else for that matter.


One more thing.... the solder is applied to the work... not the iron tip..... I can't tell you how many people I see putting the solder on the tip and then touching the work........ that burns off the flux....and you have little control over the amount of solder applied.