How to solder Christmas lights insulated wire?
up vote
5
down vote
favorite
I want to fix Christmas lights like these, whose wires got cut near the batteries. The LEDs near the batteries still work.
I tried touching the wires from the two parts and I was surprised that the they seem to have metallic insulation. I sliced one LED at the end and confirmed that touching the inner rods does turn this LED on. Here is a picture of the two pairs of wires I want to solder:
The outside of the wires has a silver color, the inner rod looks like copper.
What is the name of this type of insulated wire, and how to solder it back together?
led wire insulation
asked Dec 3 at 15:30
mmorin
1355
add a comment |
up vote
5
down vote
favorite
I want to fix Christmas lights like these, whose wires got cut near the batteries. The LEDs near the batteries still work.
I tried touching the wires from the two parts and I was surprised that the they seem to have metallic insulation. I sliced one LED at the end and confirmed that touching the inner rods does turn this LED on. Here is a picture of the two pairs of wires I want to solder:
The outside of the wires has a silver color, the inner rod looks like copper.
What is the name of this type of insulated wire, and how to solder it back together?
led wire insulation
asked Dec 3 at 15:30
mmorin
1355
a detailed picture of the wire you want to repair may help us...
– Solar Mike
Dec 3 at 15:33
2
if its rubbery ,cut it off, if its a hard coating, some sand paper might do the trick.
– Tim Mottram
Dec 3 at 15:42
3
Probably it's just an insulated copper wire covered in varnish. You could try sandpaper or something indeed. These are a bit painful to solder well.
– Lundin
Dec 3 at 15:52
add a comment |
up vote
5
down vote
favorite
up vote
5
down vote
favorite
I want to fix Christmas lights like these, whose wires got cut near the batteries. The LEDs near the batteries still work.
I tried touching the wires from the two parts and I was surprised that the they seem to have metallic insulation. I sliced one LED at the end and confirmed that touching the inner rods does turn this LED on. Here is a picture of the two pairs of wires I want to solder:
The outside of the wires has a silver color, the inner rod looks like copper.
What is the name of this type of insulated wire, and how to solder it back together?
led wire insulation
asked Dec 3 at 15:30
mmorin
1355
I want to fix Christmas lights like these, whose wires got cut near the batteries. The LEDs near the batteries still work.
I tried touching the wires from the two parts and I was surprised that the they seem to have metallic insulation. I sliced one LED at the end and confirmed that touching the inner rods does turn this LED on. Here is a picture of the two pairs of wires I want to solder:
The outside of the wires has a silver color, the inner rod looks like copper.
What is the name of this type of insulated wire, and how to solder it back together?
led wire insulation
led wire insulation
asked Dec 3 at 15:30
mmorin
1355
asked Dec 3 at 15:30
mmorin
1355
edited Dec 3 at 15:39
asked Dec 3 at 15:30
mmorin
1355
asked Dec 3 at 15:30
mmorin
1355
asked Dec 3 at 15:30
mmorin
1355
1355
a detailed picture of the wire you want to repair may help us...
– Solar Mike
Dec 3 at 15:33
2
if its rubbery ,cut it off, if its a hard coating, some sand paper might do the trick.
– Tim Mottram
Dec 3 at 15:42
3
Probably it's just an insulated copper wire covered in varnish. You could try sandpaper or something indeed. These are a bit painful to solder well.
– Lundin
Dec 3 at 15:52
add a comment |
a detailed picture of the wire you want to repair may help us...
– Solar Mike
Dec 3 at 15:33
2
if its rubbery ,cut it off, if its a hard coating, some sand paper might do the trick.
– Tim Mottram
Dec 3 at 15:42
3
Probably it's just an insulated copper wire covered in varnish. You could try sandpaper or something indeed. These are a bit painful to solder well.
– Lundin
Dec 3 at 15:52
a detailed picture of the wire you want to repair may help us...
– Solar Mike
Dec 3 at 15:33
a detailed picture of the wire you want to repair may help us...
– Solar Mike
Dec 3 at 15:33
2
2
if its rubbery ,cut it off, if its a hard coating, some sand paper might do the trick.
– Tim Mottram
Dec 3 at 15:42
if its rubbery ,cut it off, if its a hard coating, some sand paper might do the trick.
– Tim Mottram
Dec 3 at 15:42
3
3
Probably it's just an insulated copper wire covered in varnish. You could try sandpaper or something indeed. These are a bit painful to solder well.
– Lundin
Dec 3 at 15:52
Probably it's just an insulated copper wire covered in varnish. You could try sandpaper or something indeed. These are a bit painful to solder well.
– Lundin
Dec 3 at 15:52
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
up vote
11
down vote
accepted
Enameled wire. Has a thin, strong lacquer coating as insulation. This can be colored as you have there. You simply scrape it off with a blade or sand paper, or burn it off with a lighter. Once the wire is exposed, tin and solder like normal.
answered Dec 3 at 15:52
Passerby
56.6k451146
Sounds right. I will try sanding or burning it.
– mmorin
Dec 3 at 15:56
2
I find using a lighter can be a very painful way to go (burned fingers, melted insulation). Instead use your soldering iron, put a big blob of solder on the end and drag the wire through the solder blob. This works well for me for stripping smaller gauge magnet wire.
– Jim
Dec 3 at 20:23
@Jim melted insulation is the point. Not that it melts, enamel and lacquer burn off nicely.
– Passerby
Dec 3 at 20:25
1
Burning off with a lighter was the easiest option and the first I tried, so I am accepting this answer.
– mmorin
Dec 6 at 10:16
add a comment |
up vote
4
down vote
It's a copper wire coated with lacquer (it's called lacquered copper wire), which gives insulation and water resistance (based on the required color for LED string).
You can see all these Christmas light strings will come in multiple colors.
Enameled wire is mostly used in magnetic applications like motors, transformers etc... so it is usually called magnet wire.
You can just remove that layer with knife, fire or by using heat from soldering iron... do tinning to both joints and solder.
edited Dec 6 at 11:14
mmorin
1355
answered Dec 3 at 18:38
Satish Singupuram
4538
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["\$", "\$"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("schematics", function () {
StackExchange.schematics.init();
});
}, "cicuitlab");
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "135"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2felectronics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f410207%2fhow-to-solder-christmas-lights-insulated-wire%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
11
down vote
accepted
Enameled wire. Has a thin, strong lacquer coating as insulation. This can be colored as you have there. You simply scrape it off with a blade or sand paper, or burn it off with a lighter. Once the wire is exposed, tin and solder like normal.
answered Dec 3 at 15:52
Passerby
56.6k451146
Sounds right. I will try sanding or burning it.
– mmorin
Dec 3 at 15:56
2
I find using a lighter can be a very painful way to go (burned fingers, melted insulation). Instead use your soldering iron, put a big blob of solder on the end and drag the wire through the solder blob. This works well for me for stripping smaller gauge magnet wire.
– Jim
Dec 3 at 20:23
@Jim melted insulation is the point. Not that it melts, enamel and lacquer burn off nicely.
– Passerby
Dec 3 at 20:25
1
Burning off with a lighter was the easiest option and the first I tried, so I am accepting this answer.
– mmorin
Dec 6 at 10:16
add a comment |
up vote
11
down vote
accepted
Enameled wire. Has a thin, strong lacquer coating as insulation. This can be colored as you have there. You simply scrape it off with a blade or sand paper, or burn it off with a lighter. Once the wire is exposed, tin and solder like normal.
answered Dec 3 at 15:52
Passerby
56.6k451146
Sounds right. I will try sanding or burning it.
– mmorin
Dec 3 at 15:56
2
I find using a lighter can be a very painful way to go (burned fingers, melted insulation). Instead use your soldering iron, put a big blob of solder on the end and drag the wire through the solder blob. This works well for me for stripping smaller gauge magnet wire.
– Jim
Dec 3 at 20:23
@Jim melted insulation is the point. Not that it melts, enamel and lacquer burn off nicely.
– Passerby
Dec 3 at 20:25
1
Burning off with a lighter was the easiest option and the first I tried, so I am accepting this answer.
– mmorin
Dec 6 at 10:16
add a comment |
up vote
11
down vote
accepted
up vote
11
down vote
accepted
Enameled wire. Has a thin, strong lacquer coating as insulation. This can be colored as you have there. You simply scrape it off with a blade or sand paper, or burn it off with a lighter. Once the wire is exposed, tin and solder like normal.
answered Dec 3 at 15:52
Passerby
56.6k451146
Enameled wire. Has a thin, strong lacquer coating as insulation. This can be colored as you have there. You simply scrape it off with a blade or sand paper, or burn it off with a lighter. Once the wire is exposed, tin and solder like normal.
answered Dec 3 at 15:52
Passerby
56.6k451146
answered Dec 3 at 15:52
Passerby
56.6k451146
answered Dec 3 at 15:52
Passerby
56.6k451146
answered Dec 3 at 15:52
Passerby
56.6k451146
56.6k451146
Sounds right. I will try sanding or burning it.
– mmorin
Dec 3 at 15:56
2
I find using a lighter can be a very painful way to go (burned fingers, melted insulation). Instead use your soldering iron, put a big blob of solder on the end and drag the wire through the solder blob. This works well for me for stripping smaller gauge magnet wire.
– Jim
Dec 3 at 20:23
@Jim melted insulation is the point. Not that it melts, enamel and lacquer burn off nicely.
– Passerby
Dec 3 at 20:25
1
Burning off with a lighter was the easiest option and the first I tried, so I am accepting this answer.
– mmorin
Dec 6 at 10:16
add a comment |
Sounds right. I will try sanding or burning it.
– mmorin
Dec 3 at 15:56
2
I find using a lighter can be a very painful way to go (burned fingers, melted insulation). Instead use your soldering iron, put a big blob of solder on the end and drag the wire through the solder blob. This works well for me for stripping smaller gauge magnet wire.
– Jim
Dec 3 at 20:23
@Jim melted insulation is the point. Not that it melts, enamel and lacquer burn off nicely.
– Passerby
Dec 3 at 20:25
1
Burning off with a lighter was the easiest option and the first I tried, so I am accepting this answer.
– mmorin
Dec 6 at 10:16
Sounds right. I will try sanding or burning it.
– mmorin
Dec 3 at 15:56
Sounds right. I will try sanding or burning it.
– mmorin
Dec 3 at 15:56
2
2
I find using a lighter can be a very painful way to go (burned fingers, melted insulation). Instead use your soldering iron, put a big blob of solder on the end and drag the wire through the solder blob. This works well for me for stripping smaller gauge magnet wire.
– Jim
Dec 3 at 20:23
I find using a lighter can be a very painful way to go (burned fingers, melted insulation). Instead use your soldering iron, put a big blob of solder on the end and drag the wire through the solder blob. This works well for me for stripping smaller gauge magnet wire.
– Jim
Dec 3 at 20:23
@Jim melted insulation is the point. Not that it melts, enamel and lacquer burn off nicely.
– Passerby
Dec 3 at 20:25
@Jim melted insulation is the point. Not that it melts, enamel and lacquer burn off nicely.
– Passerby
Dec 3 at 20:25
1
1
Burning off with a lighter was the easiest option and the first I tried, so I am accepting this answer.
– mmorin
Dec 6 at 10:16
Burning off with a lighter was the easiest option and the first I tried, so I am accepting this answer.
– mmorin
Dec 6 at 10:16
add a comment |
up vote
4
down vote
It's a copper wire coated with lacquer (it's called lacquered copper wire), which gives insulation and water resistance (based on the required color for LED string).
You can see all these Christmas light strings will come in multiple colors.
Enameled wire is mostly used in magnetic applications like motors, transformers etc... so it is usually called magnet wire.
You can just remove that layer with knife, fire or by using heat from soldering iron... do tinning to both joints and solder.
edited Dec 6 at 11:14
mmorin
1355
answered Dec 3 at 18:38
Satish Singupuram
4538
add a comment |
up vote
4
down vote
It's a copper wire coated with lacquer (it's called lacquered copper wire), which gives insulation and water resistance (based on the required color for LED string).
You can see all these Christmas light strings will come in multiple colors.
Enameled wire is mostly used in magnetic applications like motors, transformers etc... so it is usually called magnet wire.
You can just remove that layer with knife, fire or by using heat from soldering iron... do tinning to both joints and solder.
edited Dec 6 at 11:14
mmorin
1355
answered Dec 3 at 18:38
Satish Singupuram
4538
add a comment |
up vote
4
down vote
up vote
4
down vote
It's a copper wire coated with lacquer (it's called lacquered copper wire), which gives insulation and water resistance (based on the required color for LED string).
You can see all these Christmas light strings will come in multiple colors.
Enameled wire is mostly used in magnetic applications like motors, transformers etc... so it is usually called magnet wire.
You can just remove that layer with knife, fire or by using heat from soldering iron... do tinning to both joints and solder.
edited Dec 6 at 11:14
mmorin
1355
answered Dec 3 at 18:38
Satish Singupuram
4538
It's a copper wire coated with lacquer (it's called lacquered copper wire), which gives insulation and water resistance (based on the required color for LED string).
You can see all these Christmas light strings will come in multiple colors.
Enameled wire is mostly used in magnetic applications like motors, transformers etc... so it is usually called magnet wire.
You can just remove that layer with knife, fire or by using heat from soldering iron... do tinning to both joints and solder.
edited Dec 6 at 11:14
mmorin
1355
answered Dec 3 at 18:38
Satish Singupuram
4538
edited Dec 6 at 11:14
mmorin
1355
edited Dec 6 at 11:14
mmorin
1355
edited Dec 6 at 11:14
mmorin
1355
1355
answered Dec 3 at 18:38
Satish Singupuram
4538
answered Dec 3 at 18:38
Satish Singupuram
4538
answered Dec 3 at 18:38
Satish Singupuram
4538
4538
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2felectronics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f410207%2fhow-to-solder-christmas-lights-insulated-wire%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
a detailed picture of the wire you want to repair may help us...
– Solar Mike
Dec 3 at 15:33
2
if its rubbery ,cut it off, if its a hard coating, some sand paper might do the trick.
– Tim Mottram
Dec 3 at 15:42
3
Probably it's just an insulated copper wire covered in varnish. You could try sandpaper or something indeed. These are a bit painful to solder well.
– Lundin
Dec 3 at 15:52