Working on my 1960 Magnavox set.
I finished installing the electrolytics, and had to wire in a resistor between two of them.
When I heated the wires with the soldering iron, the resistor started bubbling a little on the outside.
Did I do any damage to it internally? I was only at 15 watts.
Thanks for any help!

Magnavox300

I bet you're OK . Those carbon resistors are pretty tough. Just be careful with transistors, diodes/rectifiers when soldering.

Thanks Dave!!!!

Sometimes a low wattage iron can take additional time to heat the joint and that lower heat coupled with the added time can cook parts. In such a case it is better to use a slightly hotter iron to get in and out quickly so the heat has less time to "travel". Just food for thought.

I can be a worry wart sometimes and test heated looking stuff or things that I may have damaged. Only takes two seconds to hookup an ohm meeter to a resistor and make sure....

How about an aligator clip on the lead to draw some of the heat? :saywhat:

Maybe there was some stuff on the outside of the resistor? Waxy buildup?

You would of melted the wires before that resistor. I agree with Einar, probably some kind of wax or something similar. I've seen stuff like that before. Not an issue.

I have seen many 1 watt or larger carbon resistors in circuit and working fine with bubbling evidence which I would think is a normal part of their heat dissipation process. Some of what I have seen could have been in a circuit where a capacitor had at some point shorted or leaky and the problem was fixed before the resistors were damaged. I think they are pretty much OK up to the point of smoking out.