Soldering flex cable, HELP !!!!!

[lovinnitro]

Hey guys I'm trying to solder my flex cable and am having problems. I cleaned the flex real well with a cleaner and a wire brush and burned off the excess cleaner. I have water soluble flux that i got from a friend and silver solder from radio shack. Problem I have is that when i go to tin the shaft the solder just balls up and won't go into the cable. where am I going wrong?? Please help I am dying to finish my boat.

[Shannon SC]

It probably isn't clean enough yet, have you tried acid flux yet? There has been alot of discussion over on Jim's Boat Dock about the problems of soldering the flex shaft to the ferrule

[BrushlessHawaii]

Heat the brass ferrule with the torch.

with the ferrule vertical and the flex cable pointing up.

the heat should draw the solder down into the ferrule.

I brushed on a light coat of flux and used 50/50 solder.

if you have a vise you can clamp the ferule in so you can solder around it easier. (Don't clamp to tight as to scratch up your ferrule though)

let me know if you need some more help.

[lovinnitro]

well it didn't look as pretty as rich b's video but its on and I sure can't get it off so we'll see what happens.

[BrushlessHawaii]

I was actually unsure how good mine is soldered also. I thought about going back once more to just be careful. But decided I make make it worse and I'll just see how it goes Worst comes to worst I gotta redo it.