Home  Resources  References  Tubes  Forums  Links  Support 
Sprague Kwikette connectors
2/23/2007 5:24:33 PMMike Winney
My 30 year old stash of Sprague Kwikette connectors has finally run out! Anyone know of similiar available connectors? They are solder coated spiral wires about three eights inches in length, used to connect two ends of hook-up wire....very handy. Thanks.
2/23/2007 7:48:42 PMEdd
WHAT !....and isn't that time frame back even about 20 years after their initial intro...but seems like I remember the name of quigs, squigs or (s)quiglet(s)...unless another capacitor company had their buzz word for the same items in the small plastic ....no...downgrade that to CELLOPHANE packets with their zig-zag serrated tear tabs. A cache of which came with a new bag of capacitors....Spragues ?...or was it Corn-well Double-flyer?

The technique that I have been using is selecting the very two smallest sizes of brass or copper tubing that K&S (?) Metals offer in their small hobby oriented metals assortment and is to be found in FULL service hardware or hobby shops.Those sizes will accomodate from ~18ga ----> (whatever smaller size of wire required) internally.
Then I just dip a tip of it down into a wet flux and then over into a pool of molten solder such that it gets fully tinned externally and internally.
Then you either use a Zona/Exacto micro saw or a cutoff wheel mounted in a Dremel tool, to cut off as much as needed...typically a min of 3/16---3/8 in
being max. That cutoff manner preserves the cut end such that you don't have to re-ream out the center hole of a damaged/squashed end with a scribe.
Then I just flux up and tin the ends of the to be co-joined wire leads and then heat up one lead while you work on the "splicelet" half way and then place
in the other lead and do a final reflow so that it takes on a nice well dressed conformal solder coating.....a liberal fluxxxxxxing facilitates that !
(or would that be pfluxing?...with pflash!)
That is my favorite technique for the re using of a still good old vintage clipped lead capacitor on which I might need a full 1 1/2 full lead wire..or even a bit
more ..on a longer wiring terminating run. First, two solid copper 20-22 ga copper wires are tinned and only about ~ 1/16 of original retinned lead is left on the caps ends. Then about an 1/8 inch of tinned splice tubing is used for the joining. A final rub down / buffing of the joint and tinned new lead wire with
a MEK wetted cotton Q-tip leaves the unit looking as if its tinned wiring was chrome plated. PLUS the new little end caplets resemble the profile that one finds
in the quality mil spec/aerospace types of capacitors with their metal jacket surrounds and with the ends capped off with re-fused glass frit seals.

PLUS.. I was never thrilled with the final appearance of the installed spiral wire constructed Kwikette? /quig? Squig / (s)quiglet? with its minumally fluxed retentive solder,and that probably was using a same type dry flux, such as you now find on solder de-wicking braid. And as you probably have found, that braid only really performs optimally with a liberal supplication of liquid flux.

Plus.... I don't like the hook and loop and cover with a blob of solder on two wires, and even worse, the mere placing two clipped leads of a cap back together and placing a solder blob bridging them.

If I ever have to splice 2 wires I will tin the leads and then initiate a temporary ~1/4 inch overlapped touching tack joint and then use a single copper strand from an AC cords cache of copper wires.It gets tinned and then is tightly wrapped, binding the length of the ovelapping splice and then a liberal fluxing and solder reflowing is done.
Works great, MECHANICALLY and electrically.

73's de Edd

2/23/2007 11:41:29 PMMike Winney
Wow Edd, great response! Thanks for taking the time. Yeah, these little guys do go back further..maybe into the late 50's or 60's. I was just trying to hide my age. In 1954 the U.S. Air Force taught me to always make solid mechanical connections before soldering. We had to construct devices not using solder and they better work. I have used the copper tubing, but sure liked the convenience of the spirals, especially if they were to be hidden by sleeving. You learned to use just the right amount of heat. I'll bet some of these are still floating around.
Mike
2/24/2007 1:01:58 AMplanigan
Mike, under the Hints and Kinks on Antique radio forum about 6 months to a year there was a posting on making a simple tool for coiling the wires. I'm sorry I can't peg it closer. PL
2/24/2007 2:12:15 AMPeter G Balazsy
Hi guys...
I always wondered why there was such an effort to connect new components to old component leads?

Perhaps it was just so difficult to properly remove the old lead from it's 'old' solderd termination points without re-heating and making a mess of it?

Was this because people didn't have the proper easy-to-use solder sucker? and/or a proper temperature soldering iron? or the patience to properly remove the old part?

I have simply just used my solder sucker to easily clean up and remove the old component lead from the jumbled up junction or termination point.

What's the problem if you use a solder sucker?

However... if you stop to examine to situation properly you will find that even that easy solder sucker solution can be avoided.

The older capacitors and resistors were quite large compared to modern components ( especially newer radial lead caps) and as such were placed into the circuit at convenient points constrained by the size of the big old part an the geography of the chassis.

I have found that sometimes a capacitor was connected from one tube pin terminal to a location several inches away elswhere in the circuit in search of the B+ or needed ground location.

However I have often found that the necessary circuit termination location point often times is located right next to or just a few tube pins away. This location was not originally used because the old component was just too big to connect to such a close point.

So why, I ask... with newer smaller components do we find a need to perpetuate the connections to distant terminal points originally selected for reasons of physical constraints that we now are NOT faced with???

So what I do is simply close-clip off the old termination point located several inches away and then I seek to re-locate the other 'new' end as close as practically possible. This reduces clutter and makes for much nicer dress. Even the original other end conection point can often be clipped right off too...right at its terminal too... and then that terminal re-heated slightly enough to melt the solder and then just slide the new component's nice thin new wire easily into the terminal and then wrap it as needed.

If any of you have ever looked closly at the images I've posted of the under-chassis circuits of my radios sold on Ebay you have seen how clean and organized a circuit can look .. all with relative ease.

And I might add that I am operating under a great handicap too.. ( due to an automobile fire years ago) I only have the use of most of one hand and a partial hand/stump on the other.
So I certainly don't have any particularly advanced dexterity whatsoever.. in fact quite the contrary...lol

2/24/2007 10:48:08 AMMike Winney
Peter brings up a couple of interesting points. As somewhat of a loner, I'm not always up on what others in the field are doing....I'm trying to correct that now. I nearly always unsolder the old lead, clean the pin/connector, before soldering in the new wire...again thanks to USAF training. Also use terminal strips as needed to clean up wiring messes. Is this considered extreme or unnecessary by many hobbiests? I'm with Peter, it has to look good also. I use my trusty 1.2A Weller. The tip is just sturdy enough to use to bend the end of a wire wrapped around a pin. Actually, the reason my spirals lasted so many years is that I rarely used them, but there are times they are handy. Hope I haven't beat this horse, but enjoy (and profit) reading others experiences. Mike
2/24/2007 11:47:03 AMMark
I remember from the 70's the spirals being part of a capacitor kit from Sprague. They were supposed to save time and potential damage to printed circuit boards. When you flipped over a television chasis and looked at the circuit board it was often difficult to determine where the component's solder connections were. On the top side of the circuit board you would just snip off the defective component leaving short stubs and put the spirals in place and solder it up. You did have to be carefull not to overheat the connection and thereby ruin the underside circuit board connection. Sometimes you could get away with not having to pull the chasis. On a typical repair, if you pulled the chasis, you would have to connect the television to a test jig which included the picture tube and deflection yoke. Being able to leave the chasis in place and just snip and run saved time and money.

MRO

2/25/2007 12:01:33 AMPeter G Balazsy
Here's some examples of my chassis I recently finished...
http://www.pbpix.com/radio/chassis-layout.jpg
2/24/2007 8:04:02 AMCarl
: Mike, under the Hints and Kinks on Antique radio forum about 6 months to a year there was a posting on making a simple tool for coiling the wires. I'm sorry I can't peg it closer. PL
Here's a link to the thread on ARF:
http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4678
Carl
4/12/2012 10:47:51 AMRob
Mike, This forum is very old but as things might have it while cleaning I have come across a stash of bout 80 of these. If this post is still active and would like them let me know
4/12/2012 9:01:06 PMDennis Wess
6/19/2014 3:25:45 PMlinda
:http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=79721&p=621492&hilit=quiggle#p621492
: Dennis ..I have 6 packages of these containing 3 to 6 per package.They are unopened from my Dad's collection....Still looking? E-mail me... linda

6/19/2014 3:22:18 PMlinda
:My 30 year old stash of Sprague Kwikette connectors has finally run out! Anyone know of similiar available connectors? They are solder coated spiral wires about three eights inches in length, used to connect two ends of hook-up wire....very handy. Thanks.


© 1989-2025, Nostalgia Air