Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone,

I built a rack for my BPs a while back. There are a few levels where the heat tape does not heat up. I have tried to redo the connection several times with no luck. There was a post on soldering the connection in the archives, but what is the best way to do this? Is this recommended? Any advice and pics would be greatly appreciated. Two of the ten levels do not heat up while the others work like a charm.

Any advice?

TIA,
Todd G.

Try placing metal mending plates like 3/4" wide x 3" long (you can find these near the hinges at hardware stores) over each side of the connector before using pliers to crimp.

Just using curved-jaw pliers alone will often result in poor connections. If that is what you did.

If you want to solder the connection you have to first remove the plastic coating on the copper element. I remove about an inch then solder solid wire to it with about an inch of exposed wire. Its actually not as pernemant as people think, I have reused heat tape a few times with lots of luck.
Hope that helps.
Jeremy
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"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

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0.1 Spouse

Here is my soldering page. NO matter what connection you have the element should still be working. Do you have a multimeter?
HOW TO SOLDER FLEXWATT

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www.MGReptiles.com
Professional Reptile Heating Supplies

I've also soldered wire to this tape. I use to solder a lot of stuff years back when I tinkered a lot.

This stuff was frustrating. I toasted a few inches practicing.

I too used the soldering iron (typical round tip).
This got the tip rather gummed up, and a clean tip works SO much better. So clean the tip when ready to solder. get it hot wipe it, and even use very fine sandpaper to get it bare, then melt a bit of solder on the til called silvering. (back when we use to have to heat real irons in fire, there was also some stone, I forget the name, but your to young anyway to care lol)

idea is clean copper band, clean gun, and unstrand the wire a bit. It allows solder to fill the wire easier. I also but solder n the wire first, so it looks like tips you may find on the end of speaker wires. Now get a tip on the copper, lay the wire, and heat and add a bit more solder.

If I did this on a big scale, I would find a way to clean that copper band with out the gun, I would sand the band, ONLY, with 400-500 or so grit sand paper. A good gun, higher wattage and use silver solder and manual flux.

In conclusion don't be afraid to screw some up. In fact I say get an extra foot and practice. Soldering is like welding and brazing, it takes a touch, and practice. Some are naturally better than others, like most things. I was rather good at soldering, spot repairing everyones power connecter on printed circuit boards, as they pop off easy. And I had a fit with this project the first few times. Once you get your system each time will be that much easier. It worth learning, and pays for itself.

good luck

tom
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Computers don't make errors. What they do, they do on purpose. (Dale Gribble)

AOL IM Mettzilla
I forgot my password for herpzilla, and gave a bad email,, major OOPS

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6 baby female Western hognose, 3.5 adults some friend some mine,,,building breeding stock)
1 Corn snake (bloodred) 0.2 1 MIA In the house I hope
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ochrocephala oratrix 0.0.1? Adult, and a killer!
ochrocephala auropalliata 0.0.1? Adult
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0.2 Cats,,
0.1 Wives, (Long term captive!,, I mean ME!)
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tom

www.herpzilla.com

I thought I'd add my use of the tape.

My main use is a wire shelving unit, the 18" x 48" adjustable ones at home depot and lowes and kitchen centers. I do not have that muc at the time, so I did not make the typical rack.

I used 6 aluminum flashing and 6" fiberglass sill sealer. And the tape of course. Start from the top down it goes like this

Aluminum flashing
Heat tape
Sill sealer
Aluminum flashing

I covered all electrical ends BOTH with electrical tape as it is certified to stop up to 3x the 120 volt, then I covered that with duct/duck tape (I'm paranoid).
I do not say this is totally safe, just my method..

I made 4' stripes, lay flat a little duct tape on edges every foot or so. Sits on the shelf or is tied down. I actually like it loose so I can adjust it.

4 shelves, all in parallel of course, and pluged into a bio stat.

Not high tech, but works for my small collection of hogs and a few corns.

I only did this because I had so many of these racks from holding all my baseball cards.

sorry no pics.
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Computers don't make errors. What they do, they do on purpose. (Dale Gribble)

AOL IM Mettzilla
I forgot my password for herpzilla, and gave a bad email,, major OOPS

1.3 Bearded Dragons
6 baby female Western hognose, 3.5 adults some friend some mine,,,building breeding stock)
1 Corn snake (bloodred) 0.2 1 MIA In the house I hope
1 baby creamcycle 0.1
2 Okeettes I think? 1.1 youngens
ochrocephala oratrix 0.0.1? Adult, and a killer!
ochrocephala auropalliata 0.0.1? Adult
2.0 Dogs,
0.2 Cats,,
0.1 Wives, (Long term captive!,, I mean ME!)
1.1 Kids (Paininthearsius takamemonii) J/K great kids
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tom

www.herpzilla.com

I have mucho info from all the posts. Thanks! I plan to build another rack by summer and will try soldering the heat tape.

One of the levels is fixed and I have one more to go. So, I do not think soldering will be necessary on this project.

Thanks for the link, Matt! Very informative.