It sure is nice to be finished with a layout where there’s nothing left to do but run trains and occasionally add an item.
As for soldering. I’ve always melted the solder down to a small flat spot, then wedged it into where I wanted it and heated it up with the iron and let it melt into place - not that it always goes the way I want it to…
Get some of this wonderful stuff and soldering becomes really easy. It will not help you if you have no idea what you are doing but it will help a novice make a good solder joint.
here is a little help for ya
use a small pick or screwdriver and put some flux on the outside of the rail at the joiner.
2 if you are using a soldering gun wait till it is fully warmed up before trying to solder. A gun that is too cold will only leave a mess. If you are using an iron try to use a 25watt or higher for track but no more than 40watt.
Tin the tip with a little solder.
after tip is tinned then touch the tip to the area with the flux while also feeding a little more solder into the joint. once the solder starts to flow away from the iron pull it off and let it cool.
Rinse and repeat.
it is really easy once you get the hang of it. For soldering feeder wires follow the steps above only if you are not attaching the wire to a joiner then make sure you tin the track and the wire as well. (twist the end of the wire together and dip it into the flux and then tin the iron and touch the wire to the iron tip. wire is tinned). After that just touch the wire to the tinned spot on the track then touch the iron (freshly tinned works best) to the wire and it should flow the solder on the track and wire together. If the tip gets dirty use a wet sponge to clean it off and also make sure you knock any excess solder off your iron every now and then. Any questions about this let me know I will try to clarify if I was not clear.
I am and electronics repairer for the Military, and I have done a lot of soldering, and many different types of things, and the only way to solder is to use flux as SMassey said. As I like to say Flux makes the world go round. Even if the solder is rosin core you will need flux. It cleans the surfaces of the things that you are soldering and also allows the solder to flow so much better. Also as SMassey said put a little bit of solder on the tip of the iron that you are using. This will actually help transfer the heat faster.
One thing that I like to do is what is called tinning. and that is put a little flux on both items, they melt some solder to the iron and then press the iron to each item you are going to solder together. (do this with the items apart). Then when you do put them together and have the situated the way that you want them all you have to do is put the tip of your iron to the joint with a small bit of solder and it will all bond in about half the time. I treat this as a prep for each joint that I do.
Also just because there is a lot of solder on the joint doesn’t mean that it is a good joint. Often times if there is a joint with a lot of solder on it, the resistance will increase which is not a good thing. Quick example… If you take some stranded wire and tin it as I mentioned above, when you are done, you should still be able to see all of the strands of wire. The solder should fill in the small air gaps between all of the strand and not be only on the outside. Like wise using the rail as an example you should be able to see the detail of the rail. (there will be a bit of built up solder on the rail just because there is no place for it to go)
I hope at least a little bit of what I said both makes since and helps you. The real key to soldering is to practice. As far as soldering rail goes see if you can find some old brass rail or something like that and practice soldering the pieces together. You should be able to get the hang of it q
Yes…what they said. Plus what really helped me was practice, practice, PRACTICE!! Over time I have somehow gotten to be pretty darn good at soldering.
I used to do a lot in the mechanical side of air conditioning and got very good at sil-floss, later I learned soft solder (I’ve always been backwards) Then I learned how to use a soldering iron.
Soldering with an iron is more like soft solder. Make sure the items are clean and use flux! (sil-floss with oxy-acetelyne doesn’t care!)