I have had the 100/140 model for years. I, also, have replaced the tip with one from Radio Shack. It’s been a great investment.
Enjoy
Paul
This has probably been mentioned in other posts but it has really made my life easier and I wanted to share it.
Following the advice I found in some article many, many moons ago, I took the soldering gun tip that has a 180 degree bend in it and I cut it in the middle of the bend with a Dremel cutoff disk. You are left with 2 pieces that used to be one and the 2 pieces are only millimeters from each other. Leave the 2 pieces screwed in to the sockets.
Position your feeder wire against the rail with an alligator clamp. Flux the joint, making sure to keep the top of the rail clean. Take some thin rosin-core solder and touch it to the point where the wire touches the rail. Now, lay the 2 tips pieces on the top of the rail and squeeze the trigger. In no time the flux starts to sizzle and the solder flows like water. With just a little practice, I’ve gotten to where it is very rare to see the plastic ties begin to suffer even if they are really close to the solder joint.
The physics, as I recall, is that the current flows from 1 tip to the other through the rail and since the rail has its own resistance, it heats up very quickly. I’ve read lots of how-tos along the way but this one really works for me as my soldering skills are pretty poor.
I know a guy who uses one to install decoders with.
I finally got around to using the HD Soldering Iron, and boy does it work great!
It made quick work of putting together 3’ sections of flex track. I was able to put down just over 40’ of track in 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Great choice on going with Weller- They make excellent products.
I love my 140/100 Weller gun! I couldn’t imagine laying track without it!
Yup. The gun tip is actually the secondary winding of the transformer inside the gun. It produces a very low voltage at a high current, and it requires rock solid electrical connections. Keeping the hardware clean and tight is essential.
Yes, the first thing you should do with the gun is loosen and retighten the nuts. This breaks any corrosion that has formed, making a better electrical connection.
I had a friend who (still) has one of those types, don’t remember the brand. high and low gear. He usually used it on CB equiptment, I used it on trains. the dual tips were severly bent and worn, but still going after 20 years. Awesome piece of machinery. He said he replaced the tips once in 20 years. and he used it alot in maintenence on upper LSD. Awesome piece of machinery! Did I already say that? I used it often. Great. let go of the trigger and it cooled real quick. press once and it heat up fast, twice for high gear (or power, sorry non-CBer’s). And you can lay it down anywhere. Awesome piece of machinery, oops, did i already say that.
Remember not to hold down that trigger for too long…fizzle, fizzle, smoke, dead…
Personally, I havent had much luck with these soldering bohemoths, I use a pensil iron for all my track/brass loco repair/decoder installation requirements.
David
Hey!!! Did you take mine??? Sure looks like it. I feel like mine was one of the best values among my model railroad tools.
I knew a fellow once who formed a new tip out of 14 gauge (or was it 12 gauge?) copper wire for his soldering gun. Seemed to work okay.
I purchased two of the replacement tips recently at a Radio Shack, and they are made by Weller, Part Number 7135N. Now get this – Radio Shack had two types of replacement tips. The “N” on this part number means that they have the nuts on them. A tip without the nuts was the same price. Go figure.
I have one of those soldering guns that is over 40 years old. Works fine. Don’t use many tips. As a previous poster said you can make tips out of plain old copper house wire. 12ga or 14 ga works fine. You can bend them to any angle, shape you want them to make it easier to solder hard to get to places under the layout. Please use goggles or glasses with side shields when soldering under the layout. I also have one of the larger Wellers and it is great for soldering O scale scratchbuilt cars and engine boilers, but I havent done that for awhile.
Sounds like a great Idea for using it as a resistance soldering tool, I wish I had known that hundreds of rail joints earlier. I will give it a try next time I have some rail to solder.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
Im just considering a nice little Weller 40 watter.
There was a Weller or similar from back when in our family. You had to be quick with that one. Wire. Flux. Solder burn, and out in 3 seconds or less. That is all it takes to melt ties on Atlas track. Heck, the humming and the heat field was something to behold. They dont make em like they used to.