Whats the best size soulding iron to use with code 100 rail? Should I use heat sinks to protect the ties ? Should I use nail’s in my Micro Engeering track ( no hole’s ) ? I’m old school HO, now LS-G , adding indoor On30, so I would like to use the latest methouds of building a new Rail Road. So far I have 1-36" On30 track and 2 rolling stock I’m looking for a 2-8-0 C&S engine.
I NEED HELP
Dave
I use a 100 watt soldering gun myself. I use pieces of wet paper towels to keep the rails from overheating. A solder only takes about three or four seconds at the longest. Usually it takes two seconds or less.
For soldering electronic components, a heat-controlled pencil iron is best. OTOH, soldering wire to rail, soldering rail joints (something I, personally, never do) or soldering up hand-laid specialwork requires transferring a lot of heat quickly. A big piece of copper (like the tip of a soldering gun) is the way to go.
My rail-soldering tool of choice is an ancient Weller hand cannon rated 325 watts! Soldering a feeder or jumper takes about one second flat, and the plastic tie strip never gets hot enough to deform. Rail-to-rail takes a little longer, but not long enough to scorch wood ties.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
You should also get a spool of electroincs solder. The solder is much finer in cross section like about .060" and flows much faster and is easier to control.
I was just reading an Atlas book this weekend that said you should never solder wires directly to track, which I found to be odd since I thought that was the preferred way to do it. If not, what’s the alternative? Buy Atlas track with feeders molded in?? That doesn’t seem like a good alternative for realism.
How else do you do it?
I have used a 40watt pencil iron to solder everything from feeders to rail for 40 years. The important things are that you have clean joints to solder and use flux. Practice on some scrap track.
Whoever wrote that book has rocks in their head IMO. I’ve been soldering wires to rails for many years without a problem. Soldering the wires to the rails has two advantages. It gives an electrical advantage in that it’s very hard for dirt or corrosion to break down the contact and it has a mechanical advantage in that the wires can’t just pull loose.
I solder wire to rail all the time. And if you get the joiners with the wires on them, and then try to solder the joiners to the rail, the wires usually fall off and you have to solder them back on anyways. Plus, it’s not the cleanest way to do it. I prefer to solder my wires to the bottoms of the rail. It’s out of site that way, and it’s virtually idiot proof (a definate benefit in my case) since it’s hard to accidentally snag and yank a wire that’s below the ballast.
Bear in mind that Atlas sells little pieces of wire soldered to rail joiners - for about ten times the value of the components if you solder the same size wire to the rail joiners yourself.
Also, anyone who depends on rail joiners alone to maintain electrical contact indefinitely is doomed to disappointment unless the layout is in a corrosion-free environment and will never be subject to any kind of movement or vibration. They may serve for a while, even quite a while - but I’m building for decades of trouble-free service. Needless, my wires are soldered to my rails, and my rail joiners are there for mechanical alignment only.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Dave, as usual, I’ve only read the question and not the replies so if this is redundant, appologies to the other posters…
The faster you can heat it up, melt the solder, and get out of there the better off you are.
My procedure is this…
I have a wire brush on a Dremel for cleaning the area to be soldered and use it only for that.
I use Rosin core solder (no extra flux or soldering paste is needed)
I use a soldering station that’ll go to about 75 watts
No heat sinks or wet towels
Clean, apply heat to the rails and the joiner at the same time (chisel type soldering poing is best for this), apply solder, and let cool. It requires a little practice to master but once accomplished, nothing to it. You don’t need a huge blob of solder at each joint as it will draw into the rail joiner and fuse the rails inside.
What melts the ties is when you use too cold an iron and have to heat everything forever. Eventually, the rails will heat up enough on either side of the joint to soften the ties. Getting in there and back out asap is what will prevent melting them. Heat sinks, in my experience, only worstens the problem as they draw heat away from the point you want to solder.
To solder feeders, clean and tin the connection point on the rail (a tiny amount of solder just as you were soldering a joint) and the wire. Hold the wire against the tinned point on the rail, and touch the iron at their contact point. The solder will remelt, remove the heat, let cool,
I never solder wires directly to the track. I solder the feeder wires to rail joiners. That way, they don’t show. I drill a hole under the center of the track and run the feeder wires down under the track. The ballast completely hides them. Then I solder the rail joiners to the track for electrical continuity.
Mine are soldered to the bottoms of the rails and well hidden but I didn’t want to confuse matters any further without taking photos…
[#ditto] Just not as long [:)]
o boy; here we go again with another soldering and trackwork thread![:D]
Well, you’ll get a million answers; but here’s what works best for me: a 35-watt, pencil-tip iron or a 100 watt chisel-head iron. And be sure to put flux on the joint!