Totally Basic Question: How In Hades Do You "Thread" And Solder Such Tiny Wire?!

[railhead]

Okay, I'm starting to wire my first box, and I was going to start with making the little jumps on the switch from lugs 1 and 8 and 2 to 7, but once I have one end soldered on, I can't get the other end of the wire through the other lug's eyelet. I'm using 24AWG teflon FWIW.

What's the "trick" from making such small jumps?

[Hambo]

Use skinnier wire and a pair of tweezers or needlenose pliers to guide it about with.
You could also use longer pieces of wire and go round the outside of the switch or over the top and angle them down and just solder them to the lugs, dont neccessarily have to go through the eye.

[John Lyons]

#24 wire is pretty fine. I use #24 Teflon as well and it should be able to thread into the lugs on the switch no problem.
Start with a freshly stripped end and twist the end up tight so it will thread easier. Then solder it up.
If you tinned/soldered the wire first it will be harder to thread.

Oh, wait. I think you are talking about the switch and those tiny jumpers... Teflon wire is stiffer than other insulations so it's a little harder to bend. What you need to to is solder one end and then bend the wire in a U shape in order to thread i into the other eye. The when it's threaded you can bend the wire straighter and push it into the eyelet more. You can also use bare solid wire as long as you make sure to sepatate the connections from touching.

John

[railhead]

Thanks, guys. What you've been describing is what I've been doing -- so it's good to know I'm at least doing the way other people do. Obviously, once you're used to this, it's no biggie.

I also like the idea of using bare wire for those little jumps...

[moro]

Tweezers are invaluable.

One trick that helps me when threading wire is to strip a lot more wire than I need. Even if I only need 1/8" to go through the switch lug, I'll strip about 1/2" to 1". The stripped wire is very flexible, and it's much easier to work into tight spots. Once it's threaded, I just snip off the excess.

[GibsonGM]

one thing I do is to strip the wire, then bend it into position before I solder anything.  So I know the thing fits, and I won't kink it trying to muscle it around or accidentally cut it off too short once 1 end is soldered.  I'm sure this is intuitive, just hadn't seen it said!