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How to Connect Leads to a Ceramic Piezo Disk

A ceramic piezoelectric disk, which consists of a thin ceramic wafer glued to a slightly larger and thicker disk made of stainless steel, brass, or other metals, can conduct sound waves as well as electricity. It is used instead of a speaker or microphone for toys, alarms, smoke detectors, and other applications for which the quality of sound is not crucial. To use a piezo disk, you need to attach wire leads to it that are then connected to a source of sound or electricity. You do this by soldering the lead wires directly to the disk.

Things You'll Need

2 insulated copper wires, one about a quarter-inch longer than the other.
Wire strippers
20-watt soldering iron
Soldering iron stand or rack
Rosin-core electronic solder
Scissors or wire cutters
Soldering iron tinning box and flux

Instructions

- 1
  Strip about one-eighth of an inch of insulation from the ends of each copper wire. If it is a multistrand copper wire, twist the strands of wire together.
- 2
  Plug your soldering iron into a wall outlet. Place it in a stand or rack for a few moments while it heats up.
- 3
  Heat the shorter wire with the soldering iron and tin it by applying a small amount of solder to the exposed ends. Repeat for the longer wire.
- 4
  Melt a small amount of solder at any spot just above the bottom edge of the metallic ring of your piezo disk, so that a 1/2-inch by 1/4-inch pool of solder forms. Place the tinned shorter wire into the pool of solder.
- 5
  Apply gentle pressure to your soldering iron so that the solder you used to tin the wire melts into the pool. Remove the soldering iron after the wire is clearly embedded in the pool.
- 6
  Clean your soldering iron by tinning the tip with solder. If this is not sufficient to clean the tip, apply a small amount of flux to a tinning block, rub the tip against the block, and then tin the tip again.
- 7
  Melt a small amount of solder so that a pool, about 1/8 inch by 1/8 inch, forms. You want this spot on the ceramic part of the piezo disk, above the spot where you soldered the first wire.
- 8
  Hold the insulation of the longer wire as close to the exposed end as possible. Reheat the solder pool with your soldering iron, and place the tinned tip of the wire onto the molten pool. Allow a few moments for the solder to solidify. You can now connect the other side of the leads to a plug or directly to a source of sound or power.

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