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Check Out These Self-Soldering Sleeves from World War II
- xtiansimon 3y agoI dig any type of quick fix or patch or solution that you implement in the field, and away from the shop.
- philip1209 3y agoInteresting - so it's not thermite? That's what I expected.
- jebarker 3y agoWouldn't thermite destroy the wires rather than soldering them?
- bmulcahy 3y agoSo, a weld instead of solder!
- philip1209 3y agoDepends. It's used for welding, and the output is iron (magnetic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uxsFglz2ig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uxsFglz2ig I assume it would be too difficult to trigger the thermite reaction in the field with WWII tech, among other problems.
- fullspectrumdev 3y agoThe pyrotechnic compound on the outside only has to get hot enough to melt the solder and flux inside the copper fitting. I have no idea what the composition on the outside actually is - it’s pretty slow burning at least.
- amelius 3y agoSo, today, what is the most practical way to solder two wires in a straight line? I've tried the sleeves, but they are bulky, and it is difficult to see if a good connection is made. I've also tried manual soldering but it is always difficult to align the wires with grippers, and the temperature causes the grippers to go through the insulation. And you need shrink tubing.
- phito 3y agoNot sure if that's what you meant, but there are small heat shrink plastic sleeves with low melting point solder in the middle. You can heat it with a heat gun and the solder will melt, joining the two wire together. They're often used to fix lawnmower robot perimeter cables. I find them very useful, reliable, waterproof and they are barely wider than the wire itself.
- amelius 3y agoYeah, that's what I meant, but I don't think they work well if you have to solder more then a few parallel wires because then it gets really bulky. Not really good for production work, imho.
- night862 3y agoTechniques like these are typically for in-situ repair.
- alanbernstein 3y agoI've tried to make a thinner splice on a four-wire cable, by staggering the joints. But I found it was too difficult to cut, strip, pre-load heat shrink, twist wires, and solder without melting the adjacent heat shrink. I think it's doable if you really need it, but I was just experimenting, so I gave up on it.
- ganzsz 3y agoThe NASA Workmanship's guide linked in a sibling instructs to stagger multiple splices. I think that would help with this problem.
- lupusreal 3y agoOur Own Devices is a really neat channel, I knew it would show up on HN before too long.
- consumer451 3y agoI was also hoping it would at some point. It's a good fit. The creator has a serious and delightfully nerdy vibe. I wish him all the best.
- nickcw 3y agoWe used to use these in the 1980s on our combined cadet force field days. I was in the signals division of our school CCF (less drill and more playing with radios!) and it was our job to lay communications lines on field day. I have vivid memories of laying (what seemed like) miles of field telephone wires over heathlands and through woods and soldering them together with these self soldering sleeves. They had a part on them like a match head which you could strike to set them off. They would get very hot and melt the solder inside the copper tube allowing you to push the two bared ends of wire in which hopefully you'd manage before burning yourself or the solder solidified again! I think they were something like thermite - they certainly smelt like it. The CCF had lots of WWII surplus stuff, like massive radios with valves in and really leaky canvas tents!
- tetris11 3y agoCCF, what a fever dream that was. Give a bunch of teenagers guns once or twice and they will march in formation every Tuesday after school for reasons unclear even to the teacher-organizers. I chose RAF over Army or Navy, thinking I'd get to fly at some point. Nope, just a co-flight in a glider once a year. Lame. The army kids got to go to action camps, do paintballing, and regularly go to firing ranges. Again, all kids (~14yrs old) in the UK, in the middle of a London offshoot town with the rifles locked behind a rickety door.
- zerkten 3y agoMy cousin chose RAF and got some single-engine flight training. This was early-90s. I don't recall exactly how much of his private licence it helped with, but it was a fair bit.
- KineticLensman 3y agoMy school had the option of the Duke of Edinburgh's scheme instead. I chose this because I didn't want to wear itchy uniforms once a week and be shouted out by teachers who seemed to have fond memories of National Service. I eventually got to meet Prince Phillip, who asked me whose heavenly bodies I looked at using the telescope I'd made on a D of E project.
- nonrandomstring 3y agoWow, a mystery solved 40 years later!! Found some of these in a box of bits on an RAF base when I was a kid. They were on some signalling gear with headphones made of electromagnets and thin circular iron plates in the ear-pieces. The cotton braided wires had been joined with these weird copper pipes and then wrapped around with electrical tape. Obviously a field repair thinking about it now. They were surely the same tech.
- fullspectrumdev 3y agoI actually have some of these kicking around in a parts drawer for the last couple of years! I picked them up as a curiosity, need to get around to trying one out on camera, see how strong the joints are, if they are still viable, etc
- Hnrobert42 3y agoI don’t understand why you would need to join lines in this situation. Why not run the line from the explosive all the way to the firing device?
- IggleSniggle 3y agoNot necessarily for explosives, or you might want to wire your explosive into eg a switch to ensure it triggers under the correct conditions. From TFV, they are an invention of a saboteur division. I guess you could use them for a number of other options, like tapping a line, although you'd probably be better off just twisting the wires in that scenario.
- alt227 3y agoMaybe you only have several pieces of wire which are all shorter than the distance you need to run it?
- mewse-hn 3y agoYou are a saboteur trying to blow up nazi assets in occupied territory. The only equipment you're able to bring to the site of detonation is stuff that will be unobtrusive under your street clothes, since the enemy and collaborators are everywhere. Wire itself is considered war materiel and not readily available. Your question kind of answers itself - if they could run the wire all the way between detonator and blasting cap then they wouldn't have to splice it.
- doodlebugging 3y agoI've used a similar technique I learned in the oilfield to join or repair solid conductor and stranded wire breaks. Just strip an identical length of insulation from the wires to be joined then form a U in each by bending them halfway thru the stripped section. Join the bent ends and give them a twist for a mechanical connection as you would in forming a Western Union twisted splice. You should put a heat shrink sleeve on one wire if you have one with you. Take your ordinary solid core solder strip about 3X longer than your splice and use a hammer, the side of some pliers, a rock, etc to pound it flat so that it is then enough to bend easily. Wrap the splice with this thin strip of solder across the whole splice and trim so that it doesn't overlap the insulated ends. Take a strike-anywhere match, a camper's match, a small butane torch, cigarette lighter, etc and hold it close to the solder until it melts into the splice. Then pull the heat shrink tubing over the splice if you have it and shrink it with your heat source. If you have no heat shrink tubing coat it with some 3M waterproof sealant, some rubber tape insulation, or plain electrical tape if that is all you have. This works great and requires ordinary tools like a pocketknife, matches, and some sort of sealant.
- MawKKe 3y agoNext up: self-sealing stem bolts
- caycep0llard 3y agoI’ll trade you for some yamok sauce.
- rrr_oh_man 3y agoThe best memories
- Animats 3y agoNeat. Watch 30 seconds from here and skip 6 minutes of useless chattering.[1] The instructions say that the last step is "Insulate", so you need a roll of tape, too. Not like modern insulated splices. [1] https://youtu.be/05wL-zf1wbo?t=155 https://youtu.be/05wL-zf1wbo?t=155
- toss1 3y agoFor the time- or patience-challenged, the live demonstration starts at 3:15 into the video.
- mbfg 3y agoOG Crimp and Seals
- rollcat 3y agoPardon my ignorance, but how would this fare against a simple, purely mechanical connection, like wiring terminals, like the ones used for home electrical installations? (Or more specialized ones, since we're talking Military Grade.) I'd imagine the terminals to be more reliable under difficult weather conditions, slightly less likely to set off any explosives you might have right next to you, do not produce any sound/sparks/smoke when you might want to stay undetected, recoverable/reusable if the non-blown-up parts could be recovered (exercises, guerilla warfare), longer shelf-life, the only tool you need is a pocket knife, etc.
- slow_typist 3y agoResistance of the soldered connection will be consistently lower compared to terminals, also terminals with screws, especially in WW II quality, will oxidise quickly in a wet environment and thus the resistance will go up over time. Plus you get a very nice visual feedback by the self-soldering joints. Terminals look all the same - you need tools to control the quality of the electrical connection. So for longer lines with several joints that are needed for more than a few days, I‘ll definitely put my money on the soldering team.
- mmastrac 3y agoFor modern folks that aren't in a warzone, these heat-shrink self-soldering connectors are super useful for automotive or household work: https://www.amazon.ca/Kuject-Connectors-Waterproof-Electrical-Automotive/dp/B073RMRCC3 https://www.amazon.ca/Kuject-Connectors-Waterproof-Electrica... You do need to provide external heat though.
- solardev 3y agoWhat about modern folks who ARE in a warzone? What do they do these days to splice wires in the battlefield?
- fortran77 3y agoSir Martyn Poliakoff had these on "Periodic Videos" some years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXZscASelkc&t=165s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXZscASelkc&t=165s
- metaphor 3y agoReminds me of SAE AS83519/1 series shield terminators, which contain a Sn63 solder ring preform and flux in the middle of a translucent PVDF heat shrink insulation that seals on both ends on application. For conductors with robust enough insulation (i.e. at least 105 degC rated), and assuming you're not beholden to RoHS, they make for quick, permanent, production-worthy splicing with just a heat gun...and you can actually buy them today.