Making Pin Jumpers

Here are the steps for making your own pin jumpers for connecting large components (switches, speakers) to a solderless breadboard. The job requires soldering and, because the parts are small, this is not a task for those new to the art.

You’ll need:

A soldering pencil, 25 to 30 watts, with a narrow-point tip
Small-diameter (0.032") solder made for electronics
About a foot of 1/8"-diameter heat shrink tubing
Small heat gun, hair dryer, or disposable butane lighter
20- or 22-gauge stranded conductor wire
Strip of male breakaway header pins (a strip of 40 pins will make 20 jumpers)
Soldering vise or “third hand”

You can also use this technique to construct your own long-lasting jumper wires for solderless breadboarding. The solid conductor wire typically used with breadboards can break when it’s used too much. Due to metal fatigue, the wire just snaps—sometimes right inside the breadboard contact point (use a small needle-nose pliers to remove these).

For longer-lasting wiring, you want to purchase or make a set of jumpers made with stranded conductor wire, with soldered-on machine pin ends. These last much longer than regular solid conductor jumpers, though they’re a lot more expensive if you buy them ready-made.

Refer to Figure 1 as you go through the steps.

[Figure 1]

Cut the wire to the desired length for the jumper, and strip off about 1/4" of the insulation off the ends. The length is however long you want to make the jumper. Make several different lengths for variety.
Gently twist the strands of wire into a tight braid.
With your soldering pencil, tin the exposed ends of the wire. Tinning involves getting the wire hot, then touching the solder to it. Enough solder should flow around the wire to completely coat it. Avoid getting too much solder on the wire such that it forms a "dollop" or lump.
With the header strip held in a soldering vise or third hand, tin the short end of the last pin in the strip.
Align the wire against the pin, and touch the tip of the soldering pencil to both of them at the same time. The solder previously tinned onto the parts will reflow, making a joint. Quickly remove the soldering pencil and let cool.
Repeat steps 1 through 5 for the remaining wires, then do it all over again for the pins on the opposite ends of the wires.
Cut the heat shrink tubing into 1/2" lengths. Insert the tubing over the end of the wire, leaving the pin exposed. With 1/8" tubing it should fit snugly around the plastic of the strip.
Hold a heat gun or hair dryer set to high an inch or two away from the tubing, and apply heat until the tubing starts to curl. The tubing should constrict around the soldered joint. Slowly rotate the wire so that all of the tubing is equally shrunk. (In a pinch, you can use a disposable lighter; carefully waft the flame an inch or so away from the tubing.)
Break off the header pins to make separate jumper wires.