Anybody tried this stuff on rail joiners and feeders?
Good solder paste works great but cost over $30 a tube and has a long set time.
If you’re having trouble soldering rail joiners, here’s a little trick. Keeps the solder off the side of the rail where it would interfere with the flanges, too,
et some paste flux, rosin not acid - I use the Solder Safe brand which is water soluable. Put a little (doesn;t take much, don;t goop it all up) in the joiner before putting the joiner on the rail, and inserting the second rail. Apply soldering iron to inside side of the rail and joiner, you ill hear the flux sizzle, apply solder to the outside. Some should suck all around the joiner, fully covering the joint between the joiner and the rail. You might have to slide along the length of the joiner slightly to distribute everything. It takes at least twice as long to read the previous sentences as it does to actually do the action, should NEVER melt ties this way.
ALso be sure the soldering iron tip is clean and shiny. A dull looking oxidized tip does not transfer heat very well and is the primary cause of melting ties because you hold the iron on the joint far too long until it heats up enough to melt solder. Get a jar of tip tinner, Radio Shack has it and so does any place that will sell the Solder Safe flux. A true temperature controlled soldering station is a worthwhile invenstment ($50 or less gets a decent one) but not required. With a temperature controlled unit though, the tip stays cleaner longer because it doesn; overheat the way it does on a standard iron. And keeping the tip clean is the #1 rule for good soldering.
–Randy
I was taught by a soldering nazi in my high school electronics class in 1972 so I’m not having trouble, I just stumbled across a video on this stuff looking for a good way to make invisible feeders and thought it was interesting.
Still good advice though.
LION bought a jar of solder paste at raido shack and globs it on where needed. Him likes it knot, bor it will dry out and become nasty if you do not recover the jar. It will also make your claws sticky no matter how careful you are with it.
My father had a tin of Nokorode solder paste, perhaps from the 1940s and that is all he ever used and he was a radio buff who could build radios from scratch and fix any (tube type) TV set. Him never cottoned to transistors or IC chips. But that tin of paste is still kicking around his shop and it has never dried out.
LION will solder to either side of the track web and worries not at all about the track guage. If some solder does adhere to the rail ball, it is easily removed with a small file.
Wires DO NOT need to be hidden, quite the opposite:
ROAR
A definite advantage to choosing to model a subway. One of many I’m sure.
But then my old N&W modeling mentor always told me “we haul freight, we don’t haul ass”
Any signaled track laid with stick rail will have a jumper (welded to the railheads) around every rail joint. Seems the prototype folks didn’t trust joint bars to conduct signal current.
Any track that carries motors (catenary as well as third rail) will have a big, heavy chunk of uninsulated cable welded around each rail joint.
As for hauling what, the JNR line I model schedules more EMU than freights, and also runs DMU and conventional (i.e., pulled by locomotives) passenger trains. In Japan, people move by rail.
Solder paste - I have a little can of Burnley’s non-acid paste flux that I’ve been using for ages. It’s still ‘pasty’ and it still works. If I wanted to make solder paste I’d attack bar solder (60-40) with a file and mix the filings with the flux. So far, I haven’t felt the need.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - at 70 scale KPH, max)
This paste is the solder!!! As to Lions comments, like I said, the good stuff is expencive!!!
The paste, according to a piece on assembling brass police whistles on How It’s Made, is a mixture of powdered solder in flux - which is exactly what I described. And I didn’t say it would be cheap - have you priced bar solder lately?
I suspect, but can’t prove, that a lot of brass locomotive assembly was done with solder paste. It would simplify the problem of using a small, controlled amount of solder in exactly the right place to be melted by a big old-fashioned ‘heat it in a gas flame’ soldering iron.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Here. It is clickable now.
Rich
I would use that one. It is designed for electrical/electronic work.
For some years I have used a silver solder paste for electronic work. Same stuff used in manufacturing PC boards in equipment we use today.
With SMD components, lay a bead across all the leads. Certain temp in a toaster oven and the solder suddenly flows to all metal leads. Wash off the remaining flux. Same thing done in production of PC boards.
Touch each lead with the tip of a soldering iron and the same thing happens.
Rich