I'm splicing some cables prior to sleeving them for my PSU but I can't get the solder to go into the wires, it just ends up in blobs on the surface. Any tips on how to get it to flow through properly?
Sounds like the wire isn't getting hot enough - once it gets to the right heat, the solder should simply melt all over it. Is your soldering iron properly tinned? I had a problem with mine for a wile and when I re-tinned it all the problems went away because the heat was transferring properly again. Also make sure you use soldering flux as the solder won't adhere properly if the wire is a little dirty.
Pretty sure the wire's getting hot cos it's burning my fingers through the insulation. It does melt properly but doesn't flow into the wires, maybe I should open them up again a little bit more. The wire should be clean as I've just stripped off the insulation. I'm not using flux though, I thought that was in the solder I'm using, could be wrong though as I rarely solder stuff.
Yeah most wire has flux core, but I tend to use extra flux when soldering braided wire - to me it makes a big difference, keeping the soldering iron very clean and maintaining optimal heat transfer. You need helping hands so you don't burn your fingers!
Flux makes a world of difference for me. I use liquid flux. I dip the wire into it before tinning it. If you don't have a helping hand you can use tape to tape down the tinned wires and then solder them.
I was using a lead-free alloy solder that contains non-corrosive flux and contains 99.3% tin and 0.7% copper with a 30W soldering iron before I used the blowtorch. I very rarely solder anything so have little experience but it seems to have done the job OK, the connections are robust and the PSU is working OK.
Glad you got it sorted. The key to soldering is to make sure heat transfer from the iron to the terminal/wire is optimal, and it's definitely more difficult than it looks.
