I’m trying to connect my internal wire to speakon plate.its refusing to adhere. What am I doing wrong? Would I be better using spade connectors?

First heat up the tab and melt a little bit of solder onto it. Then strip and apply plenty of solder to the end of the wire, it needs to be well soaked in. Then slide some 1/4" heatshrink up the wire.

Now take the wire in a pair of pliers, and press the soldered end up against the tab using the tip of the soldering iron. The solder in the wire and on the tab should melt and flow together. As soon as this has happened, remove the iron and hold it in place with the pliers until the solder sets. Now slide the heatshrink down over it, and apply heat to shrink it.

Artery forceps are even better than pliers for this (aka locking forceps). You can clip them onto the wire, and then you don't have to use any force to hold onto it. You can also use them to clip 2 wires together, so you can solder them both onto a tab at the same time.

If it’s not adhering to the surface, is it lack of heat?

Temp on iron goes up to 480, is that enough?

Is generic solder wire (came with the iron) okay?

Thanks again

What kinda tip do you have?

The larger chisel/spade tips are best for that, something with a bit of surface area to transmit the heat to the tab fast.

It’s on! And fairly sturdy too.

Thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

So.......does heating up the wire and the plate excessively, affect anything? Anything to consider, other than melting the numbers off?

Are there any reasons why I shouldn’t do this? Is there something I should consider first?

Thanks 

Definitely try get yourself some leaded solder for this. The unleaded stuff needs a much higher temperature - and if you aren´t quick while doing the job, you will melt the rubber and risk messing up the Speakons.

Or:- 

Yes, just use faston connectors. That may be the simplest solution for you.

I also feed a bit of solder into the tip / join junction when the two tinned parts are being heated.

That said, i only use 40/60 tin lead flux cored solder. Irritatingly you now technically need to be a limited company with a credit account with a trade supplier to buy the stuff, something i only found out when i tried to order a new roll, and had to open a credit account to do so ( i own a limited company), something i don't bother with as i run the business debt and credit free. Another example of the nanny state...

Who supplies the lead stuff? Is it restricted for health reasons then? What precautions should one take? Don’t solder shit loads and inhale it? Work with it daily?

Cheers

It is restricted for health reasons, it should only  be used to repair existing equip That uses leaded solder, and for certain risk /safety critical areas such as military and aerospace applications.

Other than the obvious don't eat after handling before washing hands etc, then the most obvious risk is inhalation of flux fumes / vapor. The metals themselves wont be vaporized unless you like  soldering with a mapp gas torch etc, but flux vapor can be an irritant. Airflow management will deal with it in the vast majority of situations .

never had any problem doing this with lead-free solder, never needed flux. I can only think either you are using very thick wire and your iron isn't powerful enough to heat it up, or the terminals are dirty/corroded. or have you been running your iron at 450C and ruined the tip?

Looks horrible though.

When you are trying to solder 2 cables on to one tab, 

Tin both cables separately. 

Then when cool, Join both cables together with PVC Electrical tape.

I use PVC tape as when the outside insulation of the cable heats up the PVC tape won't damage it.

Also the PVC tape comes of easily.

It really sounds like your soldering iron is not generating enough heat for the job. Have you sorted out some leaded solder? It´s going to be a lot more difficult, if not impossible with the unleaded stuff.

Is this suitable? 63/37 0.8mm 50g Tin Lead Rosin Core Solder Flux Soldering Welding Iron Wire UK

In all honesty however, I would strongly recommend investing in a good iron. They should last a very long time indeed. 

The £160 odd weller with temp control is actually pretty good. It replaced my 30yo weller 45w with MM base recently.