22 Feb
2009
22 Feb
'09
11:19 a.m.
From: "Ethan Dicks"
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 2:14 PM
On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 4:36 PM, Vincent Slyngstad
<vrs at msn.com> wrote:
I gave up looking around for appropriate taper pins, and finally today
I took the time to follow up on another idea that I had. Basically, I
made a plaster molding of a pair of the taper pins, and then I took
some stripped, stranded wire, tinned it, and then stuck it in the
plaster mold, and flowed 63/37 solder down the length to fill the mold.
It's not trivial to get the solder to flow the whole length and cleanly
fill the mold (especially as at first the rosin needs to bubble out),
But I was able to do it, and got a "taper pin" on each end of the wire
that has the right shape, is adequately smooth and soft, and seems to
work nicely.
Of course, it is the silvery color of tin-lead solder, rather than the
brass color of the originals, but it is fairly affordable and reasonably
easy to make.
Vince
BTW, you'll wish you'd used some sort of mold-release when making the
plaster mold, even though they are taper pins. I didn't, because I
wasn't sure what could be used that wouldn't leave an insulating film
on the original taper pins when I was done.
They are not ordinary, at least I haven't
been able to find any like
them.
They are brass taper pins, about .093" at the tip and about 0.1"
higher up. The brass part is important. I tried using the regular .093"
pins and splaying the backside slightly, but it did not work as well, and
the steel or whatever the new pins are made of scratches up the little
brass
rings.
Ah... important to know! I had thought the eyelets to be steel, but
it sounds like they are plated brass, then.
I had been considering trying molex pins, but apparently that's going
to be a poor choice.