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i am not having luck soldering shielding to the casing of pots. it just wont stick. any suggestions?

I was having this same problem and someone here told me that quot;cleaningquot; the back of the pot with sandpaper would help, and it did somewhat.

Yup. Scuff it up with some sandpaper.

Depends on the power of your iron. You might not be getting euough heat into it for the solder to take. Might need a slightly bigger tip too. As long as the surface is clean and dry then the solder should take. Also ensure the tip of the iron is tinned, it helps with the heat transfer.

Make sure you're using a 40 watt iron, anything less just won't cut it for soldering to pot casings. Some pots have a coating that prevents them from oxidizing, so you may need to sand the pot to remove it because it will also prevent solder from sticking. In this case, it usually takes more than just a light scuff. Get some highly abrasive sandpaper and make sure to remove all of the coating. If possible, I like to use CTS pots because they do not have this coating on the casing.

Ryan

should I be worried about putting too much heat into the pot? are they easily damaged?

yes......you can fry pots......just dont leave the iron touching it for too long

any suggestions on type of solder? (rosin core, no flux, etc)

Scuff the pot and use a 60/40 rosin core solder.Make sure that the tip is clean and tinned.Also give the wires a twist,(counter clock wise-some amp guy told me this once.Something about the signal but he was talking such tech it sounded like clicks and whistles to me),and tin those as well.
Go with the wattages suggested,DO NOT use a soldering gun,(we call those the Atom Smasher).
Pots have a thin carbon trace in them,too much heat can cook the trace.
And don't reuse solder,please.

or better yet, star ground instead. Eliminates the ground loops, you don't risk frying a pot, and your guitar will be quiter.

from : localhost/www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php

Excellent link,thank-you.

funny - i've found using a soldering gun very effective
i find that its increased heat allows you to have a shorter amount of time where the heat source is contacting the pot and thus less flow
i've only cooked a pot with my solderin iron
different strokes

the pickups are EMGs, so I am reluctant to try different grounding techniques on active pups. they have a pretty specific schematic.

has anyone avoided soldering to the pup casing while using EMGs?

one thing you can do is - if you're having trouble getting a huge bundle of wires to stick to the pot casing
1) bundle all the wires going to ground together and solder them together into a wire nut with a pig tail commin off
then just solder hte pigtail to ground on the back of the pot - might be easier
i do this sometimes when i have a ton of wires that would be going to ground