Hey folks, I went to Radioshack today and picked up some wire for my layout. I was walking to Target when it hit me; I should have bought some terminal strips as I can solder more than one wire to each bit. I got to thinking though, and I have some spare code 80 rail (n scale). So, I would solder my feeders to this rail, solder a connection to the powerpack, and just use this as a homemade terminal strip. Here’s a schematic I drew up in MS paint:
So I guess you’d say my question is how feasible is this plan, and what do y’all think of its chances of working. I plan to try it out, unless someone else here has and it didn’t work. Thanks for your consideration!
Oh, and perhaps I should explain why I would rather not purchase the terminals trips from radioshack. I will have to get a ride to our local mall, which is rather difficult due to the fact that my family is constantly running around to different sporting events etc., and also I have some code 80 track on hand I can use (I went to code 55, and still have some code 80), and if I need more, I can just go to my LHS and pick it up for 45 cents a piece.
I guess my answer would have to be sort of, but not worth the effort. You’d have to remove the rail from the ties or you’d melt the plastic soldering the wires to the rails and you wouldn’t be able to wrap the wire around the rail to get a good connection. You’d have to mount the rail in such a way that you can wrap the wires around it. Maybe force fit the end into a hole in a piece of wood and have the rail stick up vertically. The biggest problem as I see it would be that as you solder additional wires to the rail the previous connections will get hot enough to loosen and if not come off at least half melt the solder on them and create a cold joint. I appreciate your situation re getting to Radio Shack and the minimal cost of this method, but you can order electrical supplies from many on-line suppliers. What the heck, try it with some scrap wire and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
well, as to the plastic ties, I can remove the rail from the ties in probably 30 seconds.
I see your point about the previous connections, but my soldering iron isn’t terribly hot, so I’m not sure if it would damage the previous connections.
I’ll probably go for it, hey, if it works, it works. if it don’t, I clip my feeders a half-inch shorter and get some terminal strips from radioshack.
If you made a mounting block and drilled holes in the block then epoxied the rail into the holes that might solve some mounting issues and make it possible to wrap wires around the rail for soldering.
Could you drill small holes through the rail to allow passing the wires through the rail to form a mechanical connection before soldering? The holes might make the rail too fragile though…
If you space the connections 1/4" apart it would be a simple matter to use an alligator clip on either side of a connection being soldered/de-soldered and probably take care of the heating previous joints issue.
Seems to me it would beat shelling out cash for terminal strips from RS.
Then I wondered, when soldering could the heat cause the mounting block to smolder? Perhaps it would need to be non-flammable and non conductive?
I’ve seen somewhere (one of last year’s workshop sections?) that someone made their own terminal strips from wood, metal strips, and screws quite cheaply and easily.
The wires have either hook or eye type crimp connectors attached and these are secured to the screws on each strip.
I mentioned here or on another site that I am not allowed to name that when I was young I had a 4 X 8 layout that I used several pieces of brass flex track as a power buss under my layout. It was flex track that had fibre ties so I didn’t have to worry about melting them. Leave the ties on and use the nail holes to mount it. Then when you solder the wires to the rail do it like you do when attaching feeders.
I think the rail in a mounting block idea is meant to be somethign like this: Bend the rail into a long U shape - like really wide but not tall goal posts. Drill two hole sin a block of wood that distance apart, but not all the way through. The idea being that you stick the legs of the U in the holes and the rail is still raised above the wood surface so that you can wrap the wire around it. Use epoxy to fasten the rail in the holes in the block. Should work, just don;t try to make one a couple feet long, nickle silver isn;t that great of a conductor (which is why we need all the feeders in the first place) so if the furthest tap is a coupel feet from the input power, it won;t be much better than just having th epower go through the rails in the first palce. Attach the input power to the middle of the rail section, that will help as well.
Another method, using ring terminals, you need a long bolt of a diameter that will go through the ring terminals. And lots of nuts. My Dad once made a control panel for structure lights with this method, he used a piece of plexiglas as the non-conductive surface to mount the bolt in, but you can use thin plywood, masonite, or anything of the sort. Stick the bolt in fromt he back, and fasten it securely with a nut. Now, for each wire you need to attach, crimp on a ring terminal, feed it over the bolt, and run another nut on top of it. With a long enough bolt, you can hook up a dozen wires in common.
Yeah, except I was just going to attach the wires bare to the rail. But now you got me thinking…my dad has some washers and screws that I think I can use…
$2.69??? Huh, the terminal strips I want are about $6 or so a pop. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, the only thing I have to lose w/ this idea is a half-inch or less off of my feeders if it doesn’t work.
Randy’s idea of bolts and nuts should work well. I used to work with that sort of terminal back before I retired. The telephone company used to terminate multi-pair underground cables in a large block that looked like epoxy. The end of the cable was buried in the block and it had rows of brass bolts sticking out of it. We terminated the interior wires on those bolts, putting a washer on either side of the wire before tightening down the nut. We didn’t use lugs, just wrapped the bare end of the wire once around the bolt. The bolts were long enough to accommodate 2 or 3 sets of nuts and washers. Sounds like a plan to me.
Just what wattage is your soldering iron anyway? You’d need at least a 40 watt iron to solder to rail, but then if your iron is hot enough to solder the feeders to the track, then it’s hot enough for this.
$6.00 for a terminal strip??? That sounds pretty expensive. Radio Shack’s European terminal strips cost about that in their largest size, but the barrier terminal strips are much less expensive. You can get a 21 or 22 position barrier strip from Demar Electronics on line for instance for that price.
Here you go $2.69 American money, what more then this do you need. I have a couple of the Minitronics ones with the fancy binding posts and two levels of terminals and guess what they work the same as the Radio Shack ones
Just call me blind, saw that in the Shack over where I live, guess I jsut read the price wrong. Oh well, I tihnk I’m gonna go with the washer/bolt/wire idea, I’ve got some old 12 gauge that’ll work perfect (old as in been cut, never soldered on or anything)
In case you haven’t comparison-shopped for wire, Radio $hack is about the highest price place around to buy it. I can buy wire and terminal strips at my LHS for a lot less than R$ prices.
