Originally Posted by
Pars
I'll give it a try later today. I am in electronics, and have both paste and liquid flux. I had not unraveled the cable nor cleaned it as you note, so the solder just balled up and dripped off. I had thought I would need special flux for stainless steel, so had kind of given up on doing this (was using super glue). I got really tired of dealing with crimps
You aren't trying to use silver solder are you? 60/40 is getting harder to find, since it was outlawed years ago, but it's still available. It flows much better than silver, at a lower temperature, and is not as easy to overheat. When you overheat silver solder (or don't have enough flux), it acts just like 60/40 when you are not using enough heat.
I usually only treat brand new cables, and no matter what they have been made of, they have been perfectly clean out of the package. I don't lubricate the cable before inserting it, or trim the new cable before treating it. No need to unravel the cable before treating. Install the cable and tension to figure out the right length. Clean the iron tip and tin, apply the iron to the cable where you want the solder, touch the solder to the cable, and let it flow. Remove the iron, wait for the solder to cool, and cut the cable through the solder. Done.