Anyone have experience soldering shield plates at bottom of routings on '62 AVRI Jag?

[Mango Moon]

Greetings All,

Anyone out there have direct experience rebuilding or refinishing '62 Reissue (AVRI) Jaguars? In particular, I'm looking for someone with personal experience soldering the network of ground connections to the various copper/bronze shield plates found in the bottom of each of the routings.

Basically, I've got some concerns about the heat of soldering and its potential effects (via penetration through the wood) on new paint.

Anybody?

Thank you.

[David Schwab]

They are brass plates. Use a hot iron and it will just take a second or so. Wont hurt the paint at all.

[Mango Moon]

Many thanks to you, David.

Actually, the plates I'm using on this Jag are custom (home) made from fairly hefty (24-ga.) "Jewelers Bronze". Perhaps that's my problem? Or maybe bronze simply requires more heat than copper in order to get adequate dissipation or penetration of the solder???

As for the heat of soldering, I'm using an iron capable of 900 degrees F maximum, set to about 1/2 of that value (450-500 degrees), and its melting the solder fairly quickly, but the entire shield plate is still getting quite hot before the solder itself fully flows. Moreover, when I turn up the heat any any hotter, the solder flows like water (i.e., it gets super thin and spreads out too far). I'm also beginning to think that an alternate tip might help - the one I currently have seems a bit too sharp (almost pencil-like).

[enkindler]

Use a heat sink on the ohter side of the plate and more importantly use flux, and only in the area whre you want the solder to flow

If the entire plate is getting hot enough eventually you are fine with the tip,

a Large brass drift works great as a sink.