Has anyone tried soldering wire leads to Estes igniters for use in clusters? Would the heat from the soldering iron cause it to ignite? I was thinking if you used a heat sink, it wouldn't get too hot since the soldering time would be so short.
Soldering them works fine, as others have stated. Wirewrap works, too, but it doesn't have a good grip. Wire wrapping works great on square wire-wrap posts, but can slide when wound around round wire
So I put a dab of solder on it in that case, too.
Holding the igniter while bending the leads is the big challenge. It's very easy to damage the head while twisting the leads, so you need to clamp it in place. I put a set of hemostats in my bench vice, then put the igniter in the hemos. This allows the tails to be manipulated without affect the head ends.
One advantage of wire-wrap versus other wire - such as telephone wire - is that it simply wraps around the igniter wire - no extra bending is needed, so there's less chance of damaging the head than when twisting a piece of phone wire onto the igniter lead.
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