PL259's; Teflon or Amphenol

[Beetle]

Excellent post! I remember reading this as it was being posted a few years ago.

 

[airplane1]

Great article, helps me.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I'll always use my Weller D550 soldering GUN.It's the oldie one with dual heat settings of 240 and 325 watts and has a large tip.I can solder a hole in the body of a PL-259 in about 6-7 seconds flat with that beast,no prolonged heating of the connector and everything is clean and shiny.

BTW Nomadradio is correct about the white plastic versus real teflon insulators.They are definately differant.Teflon is used as the tip of those little red squeeze bulb type desoldering tools so you know how heat resistant it must be.

 

[Beetle]

Garth - that's still about 4 seconds longer than it takes with my American Beauty. Thermal mass still applies!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I knew you would respond beetle. I was including the time it took to pick up the gun,squeeze the trigger and wait 2 seconds for it to heat up.

 

[Beetle]

Well, *I* was including the time to slip the ring over the coax end (facing the right way) , plus the time to cut and strip the jacket and shield , AND to get a warmup on my coffee! :shock:

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

LMAO! I concede defeat.

 

[robogator]

On RG-8/213 coax,I just cut the braid back about 1/2 inch and fold it back over itself (Fan the braid out a little)then screw the pl-259 over the end of the coax while aligning the center conductor into the center pin of the pl-259 this causes the inside threads of the pl-259 to screw down on the braid making a good ground connection without having to solder the braid....makes it easy to reuse the pl-259 if needed...one of the best tools that I have found for screwing the pl-259 onto the coax is 2 stainless nut crackers...mine look something like numchucks when they are open but they work great as they get a good grip on the body of the pl-259 without slipping or leaving marks on the pl-259.

 

[LoneWolf TN]

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I read on a website selling 259 connectors that Amphenol was high temp resistant similar to Teflon. Also, I have used Teflon for years, doesn't melt.
As far as the blow torch, oh yes, gotta love it - melts everything... Including the outer jacket. :shock:

LoneWolf TN

 

[smalltiredart]

I use one of these little guys, it works great.... Plenty of heat to get the solder flowing, but you can concentrate the heat, so your not melting the jacket.

 

[Cheech]

Ive solder pl259s with a propane torch and its easy! Just need a good wet rag by to cool things down. I solder the center pin cool it down and then solder the shield and cool it down. I also use lead solder so it melts at a lower temp. Amphenol connector take the heat realy well I was able to take one off a jumper using the torch wide open to heat the tip and shield at the same time and it did not affect the insulator at all.

 

[Switch Kit]

some are just down right perfectionists !! not my case. I've been soldering 259er's for over 20 years now , I personally think that guys artical is a bit much ado about nothing here. But I will agree to this ,the best soldered 259er's are basically the ones I solder for myself. It's just not rocket science in my book. Cut strip and solder , this perfectionist stuff makes me tired. I do have a personal thing I like to do to my own , and I personal don't care what kind they are (gold silver brass or whatever there made out of ?) I like to file down the holes for a closer grap to the sheild , or take a grinder or file to the reducers as well for a much better solder grab , 20 years now and more then likely 100's soldered , I haven't screwed up to many of them thus far , but IM not perfect so I have without a doubt in my mind screwed a few up ,especially if IM soldering mass amounts of jumpers or 50 to 100 foot cables, bottom line on that is .they all get checked before they go bye bye anyway. Cheers to the perfectionists of this world , but like people pleasers , I just don't fit the bill. Peace