connection contamination soldering insulated wires

A lot depends on what it is. PTFE can be difficult to strip but tends to stay the same shape while soldering the wire. Watch out for fumes though. I often use a pair of 'Helping Hands' with thin wire, but the croc clips can melt into the insulation if you get the wire too hot. One thing I do with PVC on thin wire which is not recommended is to use the soldering iron to heat the unstripped end until the insulation gets soft, possibly even turning black at the very end, and then to strip it quickly using a fingernail and an opposing thumbnail. This is much kinder to the wire and not too detrimental to the digits used. Clean the soldering iron tip as soon as possible (the stand for mine has a tray for a small damp sponge for this purpose. Don't use 'ordinary' sponge, the ones for soldering irons are specially made to withstand the heat.) Tin the wires before trying to solder them together. For ordinary enameled copper wire I scrape the insulation off with a scalpel blade or similar. There is a type of enamel that doesn't need to be stripped because it melts and acts as a flux, although it often needs to be hotter to do that.

If the wire is so thin that a bit of enthusiastic bending to and fro would cause the wire close to the soldered joint to snap, I often use a short length of heatshrink tubing to add a bit of strength. The tubing with the glue inside is well worth a try. In the absence of a heatshrink tubing heating tool (basically a hair dryer with a specially-shaped airflow guide) I use a gas (butane?) cigarette lighter to do the shrinking. Only warm it up as little as possible though, and rotate it slowly, or the nearby insulation will melt. Again, watch out for fumes. If you start to feel a bit woozy then shut the cigarette lighter down and leave the room taking the lighter with you. Leave the door open and don't go back in there for about five minutes.

A lot depends on what it is. PTFE can be difficult to strip but tends to stay the same shape while soldering the wire. Watch out for fumes though. I often use a pair of 'Helping Hands' with thin wire, but the croc clips can melt into the insulation if you get the wire too hot. One thing I do with PVC on thin wire which is not recommended is to use the soldering iron to heat the unstripped end until the insulation gets soft, possibly even turning black at the very end, and then to strip it quickly using a fingernail and an opposing thumbnail. This is much kinder to the wire and not too detrimental to the digits used. Clean the soldering iron tip as soon as possible (the stand for mine has a tray for a small damp sponge for this purpose. Don't use 'ordinary' sponge, the ones for soldering irons are specially made to withstand the heat.) Tin the wires before trying to solder them together. For ordinary enameled copper wire I scrape the insulation off with a scalpel blade or similar. There is a type of enamel that doesn't need to be stripped because it melts and acts as a flux, although it often needs to be hotter to do that.

If the wire is so thin that a bit of enthusiastic bending to and fro would cause the wire close to the soldered joint to snap, I often use a short length of heatshrink tubing to add a bit of strength. The tubing with the glue inside is well worth a try. In the absence of a heatshrink tubing heating tool (basically a hair dryer with a specially-shaped airflow guide) I use a gas (butane?) cigarette lighter to do the shrinking. Only warm it up as little as possible though, and rotate it slowly, or the nearby insulation will melt. Again, watch out for fumes. If you start to feel a bit woozy then shut the cigarette lighter down and leave the room taking the lighter with you. Leave the door open and don't go back in there for about five minutes.