Been soldering - using liquid flux. Things worked pretty well. However, should I clean the track? What’s the best thing to “rub” the joints, and make sure any flux is wiped off and/or clean up any stray solder?
Use a fine metal file and genly rub, as you say, along the flangeways and the rail tops. In fact, prior to joining any sections of rail, you should bevel, ever so slightly, those same surfaces at each rail end. This assures that minor misalignments will go barely noticed by speeding limiteds on your layout.
Find a box of those small sets of multi-cross-section files in hardware, or even some Dollar stores, and use them. I have a set, and they have been very handy. Cheap, too.
Clean the flux residue off with a stiff bristle plastic brush or fine wire brush. File off any solder that built up on top of or on the flange side of the rail (inside). Clean the top of the rail with a Bright Boy type cleaning eraser.
I use denatured alcohol to remove flux. It doesn’t harm plastic .[tup]
Excellent advice., Run with it.
I use an old tooth brush and alcohol to clean the excess flux. I follow with a fine file and then a bright boy.
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Flux. Remove with denatured alcohol on a soft, lint-free cloth.
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Solder overflow to railhead. File carefully. You want to remove the solder, not the nickel silver.
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After filing, burni***he filed area with the rounded side of a washer to remove file scratches.
A good source of the miniature files mentioned above is Radio Shack. Their Archer cat # 64-1985 has five files of diverse designs, with soft plastic handles that make them very easy to handle.
On the other hand, there is no reason not to use a larger file as long as it has fine enough teeth. For specialwork parts, I file clamped raw rail with a 12 inch flat file. Much faster than a miniature file, and easier to control. I have also used that monsterfile to clean railheads after soldering drops and jumpers.
Chuck
I use Tix brand liquid flux. After I solder the joint (or the feeder), there’s very little residue left (and none on the rail head, so I don’t bother to clean it off the outside of the rail on hidden track. Since visible track hasn’t been painted yet, I haven’t cleaned it there, either.
To clean the railhead of any smoke residue from the flux, I just run a brite boy back and forth over the joint. It seems to do the job!