Anybody recommend a pencil soldering iron that would be best to use on n scale track?
I don’t have one of these but I wish I did. http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytronic/lf369D.html
That’s the one I have, well, the old one, without the digital display. More than worth it. Replaced three other irons on my bench, works for everything from tiny decoder wires to track.
–Randy
I haven’t yet found a pencil soldering iron that I like. Almost all of them are rated at 80 watts or less, and for me that just isn’t enough. An iron with too low a wattage will take a long time to heat up the rail, and you’ll end up melting a lot of ties. I would recommend getting a larger regular soldering iron rated at 100 to 160 watts. Weller makes a nice iron that has 100 watt and 140 watt power settings that can heat code 100 rail to soldering temperature in roughly 6 seconds. You have to clean it regularly to keep it conducting heat, but it is the best iron of any size that I have found. It takes a little practice to be able to handle a larger soldering gun to solder rail, but the increased power available is more than worth it. After melting 3 ties, I haven’t melted one since.
S&S
WOW, I must be different, my experiences have been totally opposite.
For years, I was using a Weller 25w soldering iron. It came with a fat tip and a flat tip and i could not find a pencil tip for it. Even with practice, I had to watch what I was doing because it was to easy to melt ties. Soldering feeder wires to the buss line was easy, nothing to melt. It gives me a lot of heat over a broader area in less time.
A few weeks ago, I went to Harbor Freight a bought a 30w soldering iron with a pencil tip for $5. I have been using it to solder feeder lines to rail and soldering rail joiners together. The pencil tip is easier to work with, puts the heat right where I want it and haven’t melted ties like I did with the fat and/or flat tip.
So, for now…the 30w pencil tip is for feeder to track and the 25w fat tip is for buss wires.
It also helps to use small diameter solder. Make sure you get solder that is for electrical, not plumbing.
The 40 watts of that soldering station is MORE than sufficient for rail - and I’m in HO. N scale rail would need even less heat.
The key is that an ordinary pencil iron keeps heating and heating as long as it remains plugged in. It reaches temperatures far in excess of those required to solder. All this does is make the tip oxidizes. And therein lies the problem - if the tip is not shiny and clean, it doen;t transfer heat very well, and you end up having to hold it on the joint. A proper temperature controlled station like the Xytronics only heats up to the set temperature, which helps the tip stay tinned and shiny longer - in fact after nearly 5 years i am STILL using the original tip, it’s in like new condition.
I solder rail joners, with no heat sinks, and the only melted ties I get are if I slip and directly contact the plastic. I’ve also used it to build Fast Track turnouts, plenty of heat to solder the rail together, and solder the rail to the PC ties. Plus I use it for circuit boards and installing decoders. Turned down all the way, it shrinks heat shrink tube without melting it.
About the only thing it DOESN’T have enough power to do is solder feeders to heavy bus wires - but that’s what I have a 150 watt soldering gun for.
–Randy
I use a 25 watt pencil iron for N scale track and 40 to 60 watts for HO track and I have no problems. Make sure the track is clean before you start to solder it. If the solder will not flow onto the rail, no amount of heat will make it. The track is dirty. I use a scratch brush to clean the rail where I am going to solder it. A scratch brush is a small round wire brush available from Micro-Mark.
Elmer makes a good point about cleaning prior to soldering. There is a mistaken notion that using flux cleans the work - it doesn’t. A good cleaning and using flux will give a superior solder joint.
Joe
Allowing variance for experience (I’ve had my share of really bad pencil irons, too), I use the following method for soldering.
I clamp the feeder to the outside of the code 100 rail with a pair of hemostats, then apply heat to the inside. The solder is applied to the outside, and when it flows into the joint, the rail and feeder will be hot enough for a good connection. I can make this solder joint in under 6 seconds including heat up time with a soldering gun, and when trying the same feat with an already hot pencil iron, I ended up melting ties.
By the way, don’t ever get a “digital” soldering iron. The one I got was never hot when it said it was using it’s “digital temperature sensor,” and it seemed like it had no more than a 1/2 watt output. (Exaggerating, of course, but that iron does not work. Definitely going into the trash bin when I get a chance.)
JOEINPA, you’re absolutely right about flux. Always clean the joint with a file or wire brush before soldering.
S&S
Gee I feel so inefficient, so insufficient. I only have the 30 Watt one here for $3.99:
http://www.harborfreight.com/30-watt-lightweight-soldering-iron-69060.html
I found it nice to do about everything I asked it to, thought a temp readout would be kinda nice, but cumbersome i would think hauling it around the track soldering joints.
PS I also have a Welller “gun” model too.
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It seems like a lot of modelers subscribe to the “bigger hammer” approach when soldering. They try to do everything with one bang! When soldering feeders to the rails, it is best to first clean the rail web, apply a little flux, then tin the rail web. The same is done to the end of the feeder wire. With both pieces tinned, place one more dab of flux on either the rail web or the feeder wire (you don’t want a big blob of flux to clean up), position the tinned wire end against the tinned spot on the rail and touch the iron to the joint. Since both pieces have been tinned and a good chemical/mechanical bond has already been created between the solder and rail/wire, you only need to heat the joint long enough to get the solder to flow again between the rail and the wire. It doesn’t take much of an iron at all when the process is done correctly and no ties are melted. One final mistake that a lot of people make is to allow the wire to move before the solder has cooled. It’s easy to tell when this occurs because the joint immediately changes from a mirror shine to a gritty looking gray. The gritty surface is caused by all the fractures that now exist in the solder joint.
I test all of my feeder wire joints by simply tugging hard on the feeder wire from under the layout. Weak solder joints will break away easily while good solid joints will take all kinds of punishment without breaking. Just don’t pull so hard that you bend your track.
I have to agree with Randy on this one, I have the Xytronic 369 with digital readout and it works as good as it looks. I paid about $55-$60 for it two years ago and it is worth every penny. I used cheap pencil irons, solder station (?) irons and solder guns before. I spent more on them combined than the new one. If you are going to do a lot of soldering (who doesn’t in MRR?) get a really good one and you will never be sorry. I always believe in getting the best tools I can afford for the most used tasks.
-Bob