Yeah, the sandpaper is a good idea. Never heard of the enamel insulation coating before tho. Regardless of what material the wire was, since it was a battery lead, they had to have soldered it somehow before I cut it. No way I would've used a butane torch considering how short the leads are on those small lipos. Some things just aren't worth the risk.

This is the stuff I use. As far as I know it's proper leaded solder

http://www.frys.com/product/5841933?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I miss Frys. Wish they would expand to the east coast.
MG Chem. makes a nice conformal coating I use to waterproof all my electronics.

I would be lost without a frys near me lol. I get all my solder accessories from them. MG also makes awesome solder wick. I prefer it over a pump

Yeah, just rub it in, why doncha?
They do get sketchy sometimes and you have to watch out for the open box returns they try to seal up sometimes with a bit too much tape. Do they think we don't notice??
Solder wick looks fascinating and I'm still waiting for an opportunity to try it. You must do work on your receivers and escs as well to have experience with it?

Lol yeah I hear you on that. Which is why I try to not buy anything major there. So laptops, video cards and pc components I usually get from Newegg or Amazon. Mostly I shop there for accessories. Like zip ties, hook and loop, wire retainers etc.

I've never worked on a receiver before but I've had to desolder countless terminals on ESC's and the wick makes it a cleaner removal. Sometimes with a pump it creates little solder peaks that require reheating. And with the wick you just cut off a strip and slide it between the terminal and the iron and it soaks it up like a sponge.

It's also useful to remove excess solder if you used too much for pre-tinning because you can better regulate the amount of solder you remove. You end up with just enough solder to cover the posts.

Your soldering iron is too hot. Oxidation happens faster at higher heat and you're burning the flux, preventing it from doing its job. I'm assuming your iron has an adjustable temperature because you said you use it on full. Set your iron for 550˚F to 600˚F (290˚C to 320˚C).

It was on full really as a last resort. I first tried it at the temps you suggested when i noticed something "fishy" with that particular wire. I was hoping to burn off whatever may have been on it with the temps on full solution.

Nice, I'll openly admit that my solder joints are not as clean as yours.

i use Alpha Metals 63/37 .062 diameter. I like the .062 diameter, easier to use.