Soldering Aluminum Wire (for Deans)

[Immelmann]

Hey guys, my Google-fu has failed so I'm just giving up and making a thread.

My G&G SG550 has its mini Tamiya on (too much) aluminum wire. My plan is to switch to Deans (partially as an excuse to shorten the wire), but I've only ever soldered copper. I just wanted to know if this is something I should leave alone because of oxidation, or if it's fine and I should just work on it like I would copper.

Any help would be appreciated

[cetane]

Very rare to have aluminum wire in small sizes like in an aeg. Might be silver or nickel plated copper.

[Immelmann]

That's what I thought, but it doesn't seem to be attracted even to rare earth magnets

[ThunderCactus]

the wire you have in there is more likely silver plated copper than aluminum, but if it IS aluminum, it's no big deal to solder, it's no different than copper.

Soldering is essentially the 'hot glue' of welding processes. The bond created is by sticky capillary action, not by any sort of metal fusion, so you can pretty well solder any metal to any other metal

[Immelmann]

It's not that I'm worried about though, it's oxidation increasing resistance (which kinda negates the Deans). Or is it a negligible difference and I just worry too much?

[mcguyver]

The wiring is not aluminum, it is plated copper. They have difficulty making thinly stranded aluminum, it is much softer than copper and won't withstand bending or manhandling.

You should be able to solder it no problem.

[turok_t]

Originally Posted by Immelmann

It's not that I'm worried about though, it's oxidation increasing resistance (which kinda negates the Deans). Or is it a negligible difference and I just worry too much?

If you're worried about oxidation use some rosin flux to remove any oxidation or impurities to increase the strength of the joint/bond.

[Immelmann]

Alright, sounds good. Can't sleep (just got news about grandpa...), so I'll distract myself and get on this. Thanks guys!

[cetane]

Originally Posted by Immelmann

That's what I thought, but it doesn't seem to be attracted even to rare earth magnets

Copper no stick to magnets. Needs to be steel/iron based. In motors it's magnetic fields attracting & repelling each other

[ThunderCactus]

needs to be "ferrous" if you will lol

[cetane]

That's the word that was eluding me this morning

[GBBR]

WAIT! HOLD UP!

I thought aluminum was less conductive than copper and other metals. what's its business doing inside a AEG?

[ThunderCactus]

same reason people used to put it in houses and still use it for hydro lines, it's significantly cheaper than copper.
Anyway I haven't seen any AEG's with aluminum wire, but someone's bound to be cheap enough to do it

[Deadpool]

Actually, aluminium IS more conductive then copper and cheaper.

But the reason they don't use it in houses anymore is the dilatation factor and the fact that it easily breaks when flexed. I.E.: When changing a fixture, you'd break a wire and needed to replace the whole cable.

It's still used it high voltage lines and residential lines as well though.

[GBBR]

I was always under the impression that aluminum was non-conductive