Has anyone any tips regarding getting solder to stick to pots when attaching earth wires?
Just been messing around with the Warwick this arvo and had a pig of a job soldering a couple of earths in place 
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Put all the wires to the side and solder a ‘puddle’ of solder to the pot back alone first.
Use the bigger “chisel” tip, put the flat portion on the pot and touch the solder just to the side of it and let ‘er flow. Then, solder you wires to the ‘puddle of solder’ vs trying to get them to stick to the pot itself.
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I was even having trouble doing just that! The solder just refused to stick to the pot
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You will need a bit more heat as well as its a large mass of metal vs. a tiny wire.
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That’s what I was wondering @John_E
I’m using a gas soldering iron and I’m wondering if it’s getting hot enough compared to a wired one ?
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Oh i tossed my gas one aside and went with one i can dial in the temperature with.
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Thank you. That confirms my suspicions.
I use the gas one for bike looms but it’s obviously not hot enough for pot wiring
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Make sure the area on the pot you are soldering to is clean.
Apply solder to the pot. Tin the wire you are going to attach.
Apply heat to the area you applied solder to on the pot and touch the tinned wire to it.
A higher wattage iron is better job for this kind of work.
A soldering iron used for circuit boards is just too low a wattage for this kind of job because the metal of the pot just sucks all the heat away and you could end up with a cold solder joint.
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This is the one I bought, works amazingly well.
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Sand the back of the pot with fine abrasive paper., clean with alcohol (IPA).
Use flux!
High quality silver solder is much easier to work with than modern lead free solder.
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That looks a good setup @John_E
I’ve had some real issues with modern solder @HowlinDawg even soldering thin wires together in looms so after talking to @Jamietashi a long time ago I have always managed to get solder with a higher content of lead.
I will,however,have to get some flux as it’s something I always forget
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Here is the iron/gun I use for jobs like this.
Note the wattage rating.
I WOULD NOT use this on a circuit board because it will lift the foil traces right off the board but for soldering grounds to pots works fine for me.
One last thing I did not see mentioned was that when purchasing solder make sure it is Rosin Core and not Acid Core.
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Clean the pot top with alcohol. It might have some oil film residue. Consider roughing it a little with sandpaper.
Ahh, someone beat me to it 
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Thanks again @Celticstar . Gone and ordered some rosin core silver solder and flux 
I did think about roughing up the surface of the pot a bit and then promptly forgot @howard !
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I wouldn’t use a gun, a bit unweildy for small jobs.
Also lead solder is always recommended by luthiers so that’s what I use.
For wiring I use 320 degrees. Back of pots, 350.
Good call on the sanding of the pot that helps too
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I’d question how often grounding pot casings is really beneficial. If it were me, I wouldn’t bother unless I had an actual problem. If the cavity is shielded already, even less useful I’d think.
For example a modern quality boutique cavity preamp maker, Audere, uses plastic casing pots, ungroundable.
Maybe they could be antennas? Color me skeptical, but not certain.
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I think it is more that the ground connection for the whole circuit is wired that way than it is about specifically grounding the pot bodies.
It of course doesn’t have to be that way 
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True! I’d collect my earths in a star cluster in mid air or daisy chain them across the lugs that need them.
That much heat actually can get into a range that damages the pot if not careful.
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I do like the systems that are internally grounded across the pots/preamps. Just makes good sense. No clue why pot makers don’t just slug on a lug to run grounds to. At least as an option. I’d buy em just for simplicity sake.
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