Tips joining 3 wires to a single battery tab

Sabers
1

I have two 26awg and one 22awg that all need to connect to my battery positive tab.

Is there a certain way I should go about this? I’ve never tried to join more than 2 wires together at a single destination. How do you keep 3 wires together while getting the solder and battery tab hot enough to form a connection? Every time I try, one or more wires pops off. I’m doing something wrong

Do I strip more insulation and try and twist them together more tightly?

2

EDIT: tl;dr; wrap with hair-thin wire and pre-tin

  1. Rough up the battery tab with some steel wool
  2. Apply flux
  3. Heat it up and apply a generous amount of solder
  4. Join all wires together, if needed, take a single strand from a wire (should be 35-guage or something like that) and wrap it around the wire bundle to hold it together.
  5. Solder the wires together, make sure there is a little extra solder.
  6. Heat up the solder blob on the battery again, hold the wire bundle into place until it starts to melt as well, remove solder iron, but hold wire bundle until solder solidifies.
1 Like
3

Ooh, the wire wrap idea sounds like it may work. The problem I’m having is that the PTFE wire I’m using is very stiff and acts like a spring, and I have a very small space to work in.

Just getting the stripped ends of the wires to line up is hard. I can get them soldered together, but once I try and put them to the tab, the heat makes them come apart.

If the wire wrap doesn’t work, would soldering the wires together with higher temp lead free solder, and then using leaded to join the wires to the tab be an option?

4

Mixing solder seems like a bad idea, but hey, if it works it works. :slight_smile:
The wire wrap thing will work though, assuming you have thin strands you can use.

1 Like
5

Ok, I’ll do the wrap. I have a bunch of cheapo silicone Amazon purchased wire that I bought before I knew better that I can gut and use to tie the wires up.

6

Don’t be too down on silicone wire. Personally I’m a big fan of silicone and use it in all my installs if I can. It’s super-flexible which reduces strain on joints, especially when you have to scrunch wires into a small space once they’re soldered. The jacket is nice and thick and protective, and it’s really easy to strip and work with. The only limiting factor is the size - some chassis simply don’t have enough space for it so you have to use PTFE. But when I design my own chassis, I always try to build in enough room for silicone wire of the appropriate grades.

Sorry, didn’t mean to go off-topic.
:slight_smile:

1 Like