Any one know of a way to cleanly removing solder from an HO rail? Thanks.
the braided wick works well but i usually just heat it up and give it a quick wipe with a piece of cloth.
you do understand that it will never come out of the cloth. right? do not use the missus tea towels.
grizlump
I use the solder tool that kind of looks like a syringe. It’s spring loaded. You heat up the solder with the tip of the tool in place. When you release the trigger, suction pulls the solder off.
Check out Radio Shack. You want what they call Desoldering Braid. Less than $4.
Thanks for the advice. Desolder braid from Radio Shack did the trick!
Hi!
I’ve used the solder wick & the bulb and both work fairly well under the right conditions. That being said, removing solder (which I actually did about 20 minutes ago) is one of those things I dislike doing - to the point of sometimes just trimming the rail back.
Just a quick hint about solder wick, or solder braid. Sometimes the flux imbedded in the braid gets a bit dry, and the stuff doesn’t work as well as it should. A couple drops of a liquid RMA flux, no clean flux, or sometimes even Isopropyl alcohol will improve it’s capability.
If’ we’re tlaking just a tiny bit of solder, like a little bit that got on the railhead when soldering the joiner or something, the simplest thing is just to heat it up and then wipe it with a paper towel or something. Quick and easy. Desoldering braid and the sucker balls do have their place, but for that tiny splatter - wipe it right off. While I wouldn;t recommend it, I’ve seen people just use their finger even - probably the same people who snuff a candle by pinching the burning wick. Not for me, I’ll use a paper towel or piece of scrap wood.
–Randy