How to solder wires to magnets

Someone asked about how I am able to solder wires to the magnets (MagWires as some call them) for the battery charing adapters (shameless plug coming) which I sell http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/sho...-IBC-or-other)



I have done probably 75 magnets and wires this way and they have all been magnetized afterward. In comarison to an untouched magnet I can't tell a difference.



To solder to the magnets (without lossing the magnetism) requires a little prep, flux, and a quick soldering hand.



FIRST: A little precaution with flux. It is an ACID and will burn your hands if you are not careful. Only try this if you know what you are doing. Being sloppy with a hot iron can burn down your house and kill you. Breathing the fumes of solder and flux can kill you. Something in life WILL kill you, try to not let it be this.



SAFETY out of the way....to the instructions



- strip the end of the wire (about 1/2 inch for a 1/4 magnet)

- dip the stripped end of the wire in paste flux

- smear the end of the magnet that you are going to solder the wire onto with paste flux

- put the magnet on a metal post so the flus side is pointing up

- spool out some solder so you don't have to hold it (I have about 2 inches sticking out in the air)

- get the sodlering iron hot!

- melt some solder directly on the iron (hold the iron so the solder bubble is hanging down

- touch the wire (still covered in flux) to the molten solder bubble. It should fizz and suck up the solder (keep the wire in your hand you will need it very shortly)

- melt some more solder directly on the iron (hold the iron so the solder bubble is hanging down

- touch the top of the magnet where the flux is just long enough to fizz the flux and transfer the solder to the magnet

- QUICKLY put the wire on top of the magnet solder bubble

- QUICKLY put the iron on top of the wire

- QUICKLY the whole stack (solder on magnet, wire with solder, and solder still on iron) should form a single solder bubble

- as soon as it is a single bubble remove the iron and hold the wire very still

- 3 to 6 seconds later the whole thing should solidify

- after it cools I trim the excess wire off so the wire ends flush with the magnet end.



Next time I do some I will take pictures and update this thread.



If you don't feel like doing this yourself, you can always just buy the MagWires from me....(yet another shameless plug)...

Thanks for the tips! I managed to successfully solder some tiny "1/16" tall x 1/4" diameter (1.6mm x 6.35mm) nickel plated neodymium disc magnets" from LightHound for charging on my Turnigy Accucell 8150 Hobby Charger.

The only additional aspect I added was using some bigger, stronger magnets to hold the little ones for the process. I read somewhere that the greater magnetic field would help keep things magnetic during the heating process. (I can't find the link where I was reading this information now.) They describes surrounding the little magnet to be soldered with the larger magnets, but I didn't have a way to do that. I just stuck the little magnets to a larger, stronger magnet instead, in hopes that the field would be increased enough to make some sort of a difference. I have no idea if it helped or not, but it turned out perfectly and they kept very strong magnetism.

(The first time I tried this (without the aide of larger, stronger magnets), I ended up totally destroying my magnets, heating them too much. I'm not sure if the additional magnetism from the larger, stronger magnets helped the process or not, but it surely didn't hurt.)

I slathered everything with as much flux as I could, then quickly tinned the little magnets and the leads. I soldered it as quickly as possible and it's awesome. Still super strong magnetism and it's working great. I used some 16AWG gauge flexible speaker cable I had laying around, so it'd be strong enough to pull off the batteries by grasping the wires directly, without worrying about the integrity of the attached wires. I desoldered the original, tiny wires that came on the OEM connector, then soldered these new, thicker speaker cables directly to them, adding fresh heat-shrink tubes. I may have made them too long, but I don't plan on pumping high amperage through them, so they should hold up well.

Great tips, thanks!