What is the best type of solder to use to solder track togeather?
I use 63/37 rosin core solder for track joints and feeder wires. 60/40 will work fine. I use a Weller industrial soldering station and clean the joints carefully prior to solder.
Avoid acid core solder!
I bought this 1 pound spool of 1/32" Kester brand solder following the suggestion of another member of this forum. It works very well, and I am happy with it.
-Kevin
I also use .03” diameter 40/60 rosin core, some prefer 37/63 rosin core. Just make sure it’s rosin core.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I corrected my post above… sorry for the mistake.
-Kevin
I like using a silver-bearing solder. It’s not as strong as silver solder used in jewelry making, but it is an improvement on the typical lead/tin mix. I’m currently using some Chipquik SMD3SW.031. It’s rather obviously 0.031" diameter with a mix of Sn62/Pb36/Ag2. It is 2.2% flux core solder that is “No-Clean Water Washable.”
Thanks! I was using acid core and ran into issues with it sticking. Thats all I had laying around in my toolbox. Can you find this brand at menards or walmart?
Home Depot and Lowes stocks rosin core solder here in Bakersfield.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
My recommendation would also be to get some good non-acid no-clean flux and use that in addition to the relatively little amount in the core of the solder.
Probably not, but brand is not so important as specification. Used to get essentially the same thing at Radio Shack, except that is no more. I picked the Chipquik up on the internet from somewhere I don’t recall. 8 oz roll was about $22 IIRC.
Acid core is used to clean surface corrosion or zinc plating off metal and should not be used for electrical work. Model railroad rails are just electrical wire with flat tops for trainwheels…
Just to stir the pot, Ken Patterson is a big fan of acid core flux. He doesn’t use it for decoder installs, but on his garden railwary and for repairing brass locos.
He has a video sponsored by another publication, so you can use your youtube search skills.
I found this solder about maybe twenty or so years ago.
I have used Cardas Soldering Wire Quad Eutectic Silver Solder with rosin flux from Amazon. Goes from liquid to solid faster than any other solder.
I have been soldering since about 1955.
Rich
Acid flux has it’s place. Unless you’re absolutely sure what that place is, around the average model railroad layout non-acid fluxes are much more suitable. Mostly it’s electrical work and you don’t want acid flux on it. Even building brass can be done without it, as I managed to not need it when I built my PSC DL-535E kits.
Brass corrodes, especially outdoors. Acid flux is specifically intended to clean corrosion off the soldered areas. Rosin flux does so on copper wires without eating into the metal like acid flex is designed to do.
Nickel silver rail is mostly copper just like electrical wire (ought to be). Brass used for rails will be mostly copper. Indoor use brass can be soldered using rosin core. Outdoor after long exposure would be easier to solder using acid core.
Rosin core is preferred for ensuring good electrical conductivity of the joint. Acid core applications are more focussed on the structural integrity of the joint.
Mind you, 8 th grade was a long time ago which is when I was taught how to solder, braze and acetylene weld…
I use only rosin core solder for railroad modelling, easy and reliable.
Fast Trackls has recommended using acid-core solder to assemble their turnouts from the beginning. BUT - they fo include a step of actually rinsing off the turnout after the soldering work is done. Not practical if you are building in place, but if using the fixtures as an alternative to commercial turnouts you cna do it. The biggest problem with acid flux and electricity is that when current flows through it, it acts like an electrolyte and corrodes the joined metals. Badly. I didn;t have a problem making a turnout using the same 63/37 rosin core solder I use for electronics.
The main difference between 63/37 and 60/40 is that 63/37 is eutectic - the allow freezxzes and melts all at the same tempterature. 60/40, as it cools, one component freezes before the other. If workign on somethign clamped down, like a rail joint, it makes absolutely no difference. With something you are holding in place, if you are the least bit shakey, it’s easier to get a good joint using 63/37. If you move the wire being soldered on before the solder freezes completely, you get a ‘cold’ joint, which is weak and easily broken.
–Randy
63-37 (rounded off to 60-40) tin lead solder is what you want. 60-40 is the eutectic alloy, the alloy with the lowest melting point. Getting the work hot enough to melt solder can be difficult at times. You want the lowest melting point to make it easier. They make 50-50 tin lead solder, but that is only for plumbing. The plumbers think 50-50 is stronger than 60-40, I won’t argue with them, but my solder joints using 60-40 were always plenty strong. They make solder in various sizes and with and without flux core. The amount of flux in flux cored solder is only enough for soldering new clean printed circuit boards, most model rail road soldering needs more flux than you get in flux core solder. You want to have a jar of rosin flux, and just a little dab will do you, to borrow an advertising slogan.
Rosin flux is activated when the soldering iron melts it. The releases the active agent to clean the work. When the heat is removed, the flux is inactivated and is not supposed to corrode the work. In industry we always removed the rosin flux after soldering a PC board because we worried that the flux would keep corroding things even after the heat was removed. Trouble is, Freon was the only solvent that would cut rosin flux dependably. EPA outlawed freon some years ago because it was depleting the ozone layer. This led to a search for “water-wash” fluxes with only moderate success. In my home shop I have had some success removing rosin flux with very active solvents MEK and lacquer thinner.
Acid will also clean the oxide off the work. They sell acid flux for soldering. Trouble can occur because the acid remains active and keeps corroding stuff. If you can wash the entire piece of work in hot soapy water, that will get the acid off. You cannot immerse electrical items in hot soapy water, hence the standard advice to never use acid flux on elect
I thought plumbing required lead-free solder now.
-Kevin
There is no “rounding off” with solder alloys. You either have the eutectic 63/37 alloy or you have 60/40. Try to avoid the lead free stuff when you can.
For most model railroad soldering either alloy will do. Just remember that soldering decoders requires the proper flux and ESD precautions to avoid damaging them.
There are a number of videos regarding soldering out there, unfortunately many of them show bad techniques. The aforementioned Ken Patterson video is one of them.
Technically the ban came in 1974, which is a while ago. You will have to look at the legislation to see the actual phase-out dates. But that’s been a while, too.
50/50 of course doesn’t make a joint ‘stronger’, it improves its integrity as a leakproof seal. That alloy is far distant from the true eutectic (at 61.9 for the simple system btw) which makes it suck for much regular soldering, but the range allows good wiped joints in the absence of fluxing, so by the time full solidus is reached some manipulation for full wetting can be achieved.
My understanding was that 63:37 is used on brass rather than something like 62:38 because there will be some leach of zinc out of the substrate which affects the metallurgy at the bond. I’m sure there are other reasons; YMMV. Do not laugh at apparently very small proportion and elemental changes having relatively large consequences; the same is true in other areas of metallurgy as well.
and you should not intentionally add add any lead source to potable water supplies. Mind you, I was taught as a child to never ever drink from the hot water tap, even if the water was still cool. Why? Because old British houses still used lead water pipes. And hot water dissolves lead, albeit very slowly. Cold water does not. Along with that admonition is to be added always run the tap for a few seconds before taking a drink of water if a hot/cold common faucet is the source. You just never know if some amateur or unethical plumber used lead solder in a repair. Kettles were always soldered with silver solder for the same reason. Now that salt based water softeners are in common use you should avoid drinking from any tap except the kitchen sink cold tap, assuming you believe the now debunked idea that salt in your diet increases your risk of heart disease.
Plus ca change…