18Watt.com

My heater wiring is done. Here's my typical process.

First I measure out the heater wires.
Then I strip them. This time I used a thermal stripper, and it works well, but my normal stripper works well on this gauge too.
These PTFE wires are not pre bonded, so I tinned the tips.
The wires are all tinned/bonded, and heatshrink is ready to go.
First I make a mechanical connection, and solder in the leads. Then heat the shrink.

Sometimes I use PVC instead of PTFE. They're both good. Here's the differences from my perspective:

PVC:
The PVC wire I get is fairly high temp, and pre-bonded. That's a big time saver. However, PVC doesn't hold its form as well, and is not nearly as heat resistant as PTFE. If you see some of my other heater wiring photos with PVC, you might notice I don't generally connect pin 9 on the preamp tubes until the end to avoid nicking the wire with the soldering iron. Pro tip.

PTFE:
PTFE wire is great, has very high temp resistance, and holds its form really well. It is more work though, and more expensive. Stripping PTFE is (sometimes) harder than PVC, and I have not found pre-bonded PTFE. Tinning/bonding is necessary prior to working with it. If you have good strippers, and a solder pot, it's not that big of a deal. If you don't, I would stick with PVC.

Thanks,
Josh

Very nice!!!
Is it 6V6 or EL34 winding up in the power section?
I'm confused Josh... did you prematurely solder pins 9???

Bieworm wrote: ↑

Sun 01/17/21 5:26 pm

Very nice!!!
Is it 6V6 or EL34 winding up in the power section?
I'm confused Josh... did you prematurely solder pins 9???

Thanks

EL34 for this one.

lol, not prematurely. The PTFE is fine to go first (at least for me ), it's higher heat resistance and thinner, so it's easier to deal with in that regard.

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Sun 01/17/21 4:36 pm

PTFE wire is great, has very high temp resistance, and holds its form really well. It is more work though, and more expensive. Stripping PTFE is harder than PVC, and I have not found pre-bonded PTFE. Tinning/bonding is necessary prior to working with it. If you have good strippers, and a solder pot, it's not that big of a deal. If you don't, I would stick with PVC.

What does that mean, "pre-bonded"? And why do you tin it? All the PTFE I use is silver plated. Solder flows almost instantly throughout the joint. You're right about it being difficult to strip. I use thermal strippers for this, and I think I read that you do, too.

Jack

I use the silver plated 20G stranded copper insulated with PTFE. It strips just as easily as anything else, I use a Klein Katapult stripper. No need to pre-tin, it has the silver plating ready to solder. Wonderful stuff to work with. I did this heater line with it today.

That's nice wiring! Where I used to work, we wired chassis with Tefzel almost exclusively. It has many of the properties of PTFE, but easier to strip and less susceptible to cold flow. Really nice to use, but unfortunately I don't have any for use at home.

Jack

TriodeLuvr wrote: ↑

Sun 01/17/21 11:51 pm

What does that mean, "pre-bonded"? And why do you tin it? All the PTFE I use is silver plated. Solder flows almost instantly throughout the joint. You're right about it being difficult to strip. I use thermal strippers for this, and I think I read that you do, too.

Yes, it is pre-tinned and silver plated, but it is not pre-bonded. This means that the wire can fray, and doesn't hold it's form as well when manipulating the end. Pre-bonded means that the stranded wire gets soldered together during construction of the wire. Best practice for wire is to bond (solder) the ends of the wire prior to soldering in circuit.

I do have a thermal stripper, and it works well. However, with this gauge of wire, the Klein stripper also works perfectly well. I like the thermal stripper because it has a larger range than my other strippers (16 to 30AWG). In some case, the thermal stripper can also work a lot easier with shorter wire if restripping is needed.

crgfrench wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 1:38 am

I use the silver plated 20G stranded copper insulated with PTFE. It strips just as easily as anything else, I use a Klein Katapult stripper. No need to pre-tin, it has the silver plating ready to solder. Wonderful stuff to work with. I did this heater line with it today.

I think we both have the same stripper. It works great, but it's an issue sometimes for shorter wires, or different wire gauges. 20 and 18AWG PTFE both usually work fine on it.

Yes, as I mentioned above, same wire, but bonding is best practice for the ends of the wire to avoid frayed wire, and for holding form better prior to soldering. See my soldering video links.

Very nice heater wiring! I thought it was funny we both started posting heaters about the same time.

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 8:45 am

Very nice heater wiring! I thought it was funny we both started posting heaters about the same time.

Yours too! I was chuckling, I saw your post right after I finished mine -- great minds think alike...

crgfrench wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 8:55 am

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 8:45 am

Very nice heater wiring! I thought it was funny we both started posting heaters about the same time.

Yours too! I was chuckling, I saw your post right after I finished mine -- great minds think alike...

And we are pretty awesome.

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 8:42 am

Pre-bonded means that the stranded wire gets soldered together during construction of the wire.

I've never heard of that. Doesn't that degrade the physical characteristics that make stranded wire useful, such as its inherent flexibility and resistance to breakage? Do you know which industries use this type of wire?

I do have a thermal stripper, and it works well. However, with this gauge of wire, the Klein stripper also works perfectly well. I like the thermal stripper because it has a larger range than my other strippers (16 to 30AWG). In some case, the thermal stripper can also work a lot easier with shorter wire if restripping is needed.

I've been using the Klein automatic for years. Mine doesn't work well with Teflon, but maybe the blades are dull. I've only had it for 40 years. I also bought two sizes of Klein hand strippers recently. These work way better than the automatic in small spaces, and they can also be used to score the insulation on difficult wire types such as miniature coax. That prevents nicking the braid, and it's less messy (and less smelly) than the thermal. I don't use them on Teflon much, simply due to the difficulty in holding the wire without crushing it. They're great for PVC, and I have a lot of that in tinned solid and stranded.



Jack

TriodeLuvr wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 1:26 pm

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 8:42 am

Pre-bonded means that the stranded wire gets soldered together during construction of the wire.

I've never heard of that. Doesn't that degrade the physical characteristics that make stranded wire useful, such as its inherent flexibility and resistance to breakage? Do you know which industries use this type of wire?

Not at all. It doesn't make it rigid like solid core, and it adds strength and the ability to hold it's shape. When you bond the ends yourself when it isn't pre-bonded, then that does typically make it stiffer, but you're only doing it to the end, and you don't want to overdo it. See the soldering videos linked in my signature for more details.

I've been using the Klein automatic for years. Mine doesn't work well with Teflon, but maybe the blades are dull. I've only had it for 40 years.

Ha, yeah, dull doesn't help. Automatic strippers aren't usually as good as the katapult. This is the one we use:

Thanks,
Josh

I'll look into that wire. That's an automatic stripper in your picture, or at least that's what they were called when I bought it years ago. Katapult is just a newer trade name. Anyway, that's what I was referring to.

JMPGuitars wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 1:45 pm

... the katapult. This is the one we use...

One my favorite tools. Very satisfying to use!

TriodeLuvr wrote: ↑

Mon 01/18/21 3:14 pm

I'll look into that wire. That's an automatic stripper in your picture, or at least that's what they were called when I bought it years ago. Katapult is just a newer trade name. Anyway, that's what I was referring to.

You're basically right, but for a lot of them, automatic meant that it automatically adjusts for the wire gauge. The katapult and similar strippers are notched for different gauges.

The power transformer is finally wired up.

Is it an illusion or are you using thinner wiring? The heater wires seem so slim..
And could you demo the reverb pot in all its possibilities? I'm curious about the extra features

Bieworm wrote: ↑

Tue 02/02/21 3:12 pm

Is it an illusion or are you using thinner wiring? The heater wires seem so slim..
And could you demo the reverb pot in all its possibilities? I'm curious about the extra features

Different insulation. PTFE instead of PVC, same gauges. See my post above: viewtopic.php?p=249031#p249031

Which thermal stripper do you use? Mine is like this one (not my photo). Only thing, I wish it had a temperature control. The blades get red hot if it's on more than a couple seconds. Maybe I should try using it with a variac.



Jack

TriodeLuvr wrote: ↑

Wed 02/03/21 2:26 am

Which thermal stripper do you use? Mine is like this one (not my photo). Only thing, I wish it had a temperature control. The blades get red hot if it's on more than a couple seconds. Maybe I should try using it with a variac.

I have this one: https://patcoinc.net/products/pts30/

They're supposed to get red hot, 1700 degrees F to melt the PTFE clean. I don't touch the insulation to it until it's red.

I wonder if that variac idea would work to make it safe for other insulation types. I think it might reduce the reliability/longevity of the stripper to run it that low. Other strippers are around 450 degrees on that site, I think dropping over 1000 degrees might be difficult/unstable.