enamel solvent

[woodyc]

What's a good solvent for magnet wire? I usually just scrape it but I have some really small litz wire I need to solder. Thanks.

[belwar]

what do you use to scrape it normally?

[David Schwab]

I just solder my wire with the iron set to about 700°F. I never strip the insulation.

[Steve Conner]

Yeah, only a masochist would make Litz wire out of anything but self-fluxing magnet wire. The stuff with insulation that can be soldered through.

(If you do it on a regular basis, beware, I heard that the fumes are quite toxic)

[tedmich]

I am working with some insane Riken 49AWG and have looked into stripping options (I think David's 700F might vaporize it, but really my iron doesn't go that high)

Have you guys seen the thermal chemical stripper?

it uses 25% KOH at 70-210F (dangerous but I'm a chemist) This is pretty much what OChemists use to remove "reaction tar" from glassware.

[AR1241] USP1 Ultra Fine Magnet Wire Stripping Pot

I am (of course) going DIY, unit is a simple SS beaker, heating mantle and 1/16 DIN PID temp controller, about $40 off ebay. I'll will report back if it works.

Could double as a wax pot!

[woodyc]

what do you use to scrape it normally?

Is that a trick question? If you really don't know... Some magnet wire will tin by just dipping it in hot solder, but not all. I use a razor blade or exacto knife. You have to have the wire on something soft so you don't remove any copper. In most cases your finger works great. You can also use a flame but its more work to do a good job.

It would be hard to do either in my present case because the wires are fairly short, small diamter strands, and in a piece of gear where I can only get at them from a few angles. I filled a thimble with acetone and soaked the ends it last nite, but it did nothing.

[David Schwab]

I am working with some insane Riken 49AWG and have looked into stripping options (I think David's 700F might vaporize it, but really my iron doesn't go that high)

It will melt the wire easily, but because I'm soldering it when its wrapped around the much thicker lead, that doesn't happen unless I hold the iron on it too long. If I set the iron much lower I often get a bad solder joint.

49 AWG is pretty damn thin! The thinnest I have is 47AWG.

[woodyc]

...it uses 25% KOH at 70-210F...

I'm going to try that too. They should have some at the grocery store or walmart? Or am I thinking of NaOH?

[John Carlsen]

It will melt the wire easily, but because I'm soldering it when its wrapped around the much thicker lead, that doesn't happen unless I hold the iron on it too long. If I set the iron much lower I often get a bad solder joint.

49 AWG is pretty damn thin! The thinnest I have is 47AWG.

David, so do you never need to strip insulation for Plain Enamel wire? If I had known that, it would have probably saved me a bunch of time. I always sand off the insulation. My iron is the standard Weller that goes up to 850 degrees.

[woodyc]

All I could find easily was NaOH. I tried it at just under the b.p. of water for a few of minutes. Not sure of the molarity of course... I used the end cap of 5/8" cu pipe as a dip tank. The only thing that happened was that the part of the tank above the solution got blackened. Nothing happened to the coating on the wire or the bare cu which was submerged.

P.S. It takes about 2000 degrees F to melt cu. I don't think any soldering iron, or most flames, are going to do it.

[David Schwab]

David, so do you never need to strip insulation for Plain Enamel wire? If I had known that, it would have probably saved me a bunch of time. I always sand off the insulation. My iron is the standard Weller that goes up to 850 degrees.

I never use plain enamel, so I can't comment on that. But it works fine on SPN and formvar. I used to sand it, scrape it, or burn it off with a butane lighter. I usually broke the wire with those methods.

[David Schwab]

P.S. It takes about 2000 degrees F to melt cu. I don't think any soldering iron, or most flames, are going to do it.

Try it. It turns red and then turns into a little ball. This is for magnet wire, not a copper pipe.

On the other hand, the insulations burns off at a fairly low temperature.

[John Carlsen]

I never use plain enamel, so I can't comment on that. But it works fine on SPN and formvar. I used to sand it, scrape it, or burn it off with a butane lighter. I usually broke the wire with those methods.

I'll have to experiment with it and see if it does it. I have to confess that I never even considered not sanding any wire except for the SPN wire.

[jonson]

You can always use the Asprin trick. Asprin is acetylsalicylic acid and if you place the wire onto an asprin tablet of the non soluble type and put your soldering iron on top. Draw back the wire and it will strip it. Other than that tin it whilst it is on the Asprin. A small fan helps as the fumes ain't too good.

[woodyc]

Try it. It turns red and then turns into a little ball. This is for magnet wire, not a copper pipe...

Although the heat may be different, the melting temp should be the same regardless of size.

I was wrong about flames -- I just looked it up. A match gets almost hot enough to melt copper, a candle is more than sufficient, and butane is complete overkill. I still don't see how it would be possible with a soldering iron however.