Personnally, I don't think the solder melting is the problem. The problem
is the heat being generated in a defective solder joint and that heat is
passed on to the connected wires. I've had to rebuild several power
supplies where the breakers/fuses never tripped/popped until after the wire
insulation melted off of the wires and the wires came in contact with each
other or ground.


Pass the crimpers please.

Mike B
USAF Retired
30 Year Electronics Tech.


"dazed and confuzed" wrote in message
...
wrote:

On Fri, 28 May 2004 18:03:11 GMT, Dan Best wrote:


I didn't know that. Why is it not safe? What problems can it cause?



In some situations the wire could heat up enough to soften or even
melt the solder before tripping a breaker. This could result in the
joint coming apart, and the free ends could then contact something
else, including a human. The other problem if the solder melts is that
molten solder could drip and bridge two things that should not be
bridged, or land on something flammable. These things don't happen a
lot, but they have happend enough to be included in wiring and safety
codes. Many codes relate to things that rarely occur, but have serious
consequences when they DO occur. How often does a smoke detector have
to save your life to be worthwhile?

BB



Thanks - Dan

wrote:

On Thu, 27 May 2004 19:03:47 -0500, dazed and confuzed
wrote:



QLW wrote:


I usually solder connector on my boat and have never found this to
fail.
I've never see this done but the manufacturers so there must be some
negative reason but I've not found it.

Cost of assembly. It gets the boat out of the door, and it works long
enough to last until the end of the warranty.


Power wires should NEVER be soldered. It's against NEC and NFPA code
for good reason. It's not safe.

BB


if a connection is properly engineered, I.E., the terminal and wire are
sized correctly, the breaker is sized correctly, and the post that the
terminal is connected to is the correct size, then the solder will not
melt before the breaker trips.

--
the most committed always win