one way to keep your wire from wicking solder and getting stiff up under the insulation...
- over strip your wire (half inch stripped).
- twist and pre-tin the exposed wire from the tip of the wire till you see the solder getting to the insulation.
- cut short the exposed pretinned wire so that the resulting exposed tip just covers the pad its going to.
this way you have very little exposed wire and you don't overshoot the pad with the wire giving you a clean solder ball right on the pad.
plus.. the insulated wire then can bend and shape directly after the solder joint.
