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Soldering Lacquer Coated Earphonephone Wires

God, I hate earphone wires! You would think after all this time someone would be able to figure out how to keep them from fatiguing and breaking? usually right at the molded rubber jack housing.

So I have an expensive Sennheiser noise canceling set where the wires have broken at the jack. Each "wire" is actually a bundle of very fine wires twisted around each other and a string-like fiber reinforcement strand. The fine wires appear to be lacquer-coated, like you would find in a transformer winding.

I am planning to trim back from the breaks and solder the three wires to a Radio Shack jack. I am wondering how to strip the lacquer or whatever the insulating coating is from the individual strands without breaking them or shorting them out.

Anyone have any experience or advice?

--
Nelson
Reply to
Nelson
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It's long been my opinion that the "strain relief" -- because it works over too short a length of the cable -- is often what causes the break.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

Hi, see other archived comments regarding tinsel wire. At least some, if not most of the coatings on the conductors will melt away at soldering temperatures.

Try to not have any flex/movement at the soldering points, otherwise, the fine conductors will break soon (heat shrink tubing, hot glue etc).

Heat shrink tubing extending out of a new plug body will likely be an improvement as far as strain relief, over the original cable plug.

-- Cheers, WB .............

Reply to
Wild_Bill

On Sat, 31 Aug 2013 14:32:27 -0400, Wild_Bill wrote (in article ):

Thanks. I'm thinking I'll add an old ball point pen spring beneath the tubing for strain relief.

-- Nelson

Reply to
Nelson

Use a solder pot.

Reply to
dave

The plugs on my earbuds always fail at the strain relief as you have experienced. I did find a good solution though. Radio Shack sells gold plated plugs with a strain relief. I know you can buy these same plugs cheaper online but then there's shipping and waiting. Anyway, the strain relief inside diameter is way larger than the diameter of my ear buds cable and this has proved to be best. The way I repair the cables follows. After cutting off the existing plug I put the cable through the strain relief and outer shell of the replacement plug, then strip away about 1/4 inch of the outer cable cover. Then I grab the fine wires that are exposed and gently pull back on the cable cover, thereby exposing more and more of the fine wires. I have found that the cable cover on all the ear buds I have bought are not bound tightly to the wires. Anyway, after exposing about 2 inches of wire I tie the cable into a knot near the end of the cover to keep the cover from creeping back over the wires. Having the wire exposed this way makes them much easier to handle. After this is done I separate the three different colored wire bundles. Next, the wire bundles are each twisted so that the fine wires won't unravel when soldered. Now I melt enough solder on the tip of the soldering iron so that a blob of solder is hanging down from the tip when held horizontally. The twisted ends of the wire bundles are now passed individually into and out of the solder blob a few times until I can see that the wire is tinned. You will need less that 1/8 inch tinned. You will probably need to remove the solder blob and renew it for each wire bundle. The bundles are color coded red, green, and copper. The copper is the common and should be soldered to the longest solder tab on the plug. I don't remember which color is right or left and which solder tab is right or left. You will need to figure that out if you care. I'm sure Google will work for that. Anyway, after soldering the wires to the plug untie the knot in the cable and coax the cover back over the wires. Then tie a knot in the cable such that the knot ends up being right up against the longest solder tab on the plug. Make the knot pretty tight so that the plug cover will slide over it. There will be some resistance. Finally, screw the cover onto the plug. The inside end of the strain relief is flared and the knot will be forced into it. This will prevent the cable from pulling out and will also prevent the cable from pulling on the solder joints. And the cable being loose in the strain relief prevents the cable from breaking where it exits the strain relief. Hope this helps. Eric

Reply to
etpm

The wire is called "gimp" according to the old Audio Cyclopedia. A Zippo lighter does wonders for removing the non metallic parts. Butane may be too hot.

Reply to
dave

In most of the headphones I've messed with, the wire in insulated with solder-strippable enamel insulation. All you need is a HOT soldering iron. Avoid the smoke.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Reply to
Mark Zenier

I've fixed these before. Did yours have the weird battery modules?

just burn the shellac off the wires with a blob of fresh solder. I can't imagine that's not how they make the things in the first place. Use thin needle nose pliers as heatsinks so the cable doesn't burn up and "retract".

I used braided tubing to build up the diameter of the thin cord to that of the strain relief in a new 1/8 stereo plug, and a couple layers of heat shrink. My repair is 100 times better than the bogus factory plug.

Reply to
Cydrome Leader

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