I would like to buy a soldering iron. Radio Shack has a soldering iron station that has a 25 and 40 watt setting that sells for a liitle over $20.
Would this work for most MRR needs like soldering electrical components and wire to track?
Also, I need to solder the wires to a number of Tortoise switch machines. It looks like a delicate operation. Does anyone have any advice on what to do and not to do. I really don’t want to damage them when I try to solder the wires on the first time.
The Radio Shack soldering iron you mentioned should work fire. The 25 watt setting would work for wire soldering; the 40 watt for soldering track. When soldering wires, use a smaller pencil-point tip. Have you ever soldered before?
I use a Weller constant temperature iron myself. It costs a lot more but will lase me a lifetime. Itt has interchangeable tips as well that are very handy.
Some points to ponder are,
NEVER use acid flux on electronic equipment
ALWAYS keep the work and the tip CLEAN. Make sure that the joint is mechanically secure before soldering.
Apply a small amount of flux to the work and heat until the solder melts into the joint.
I use Kester as well but the heat transfer to the work is greatly improved with the addition of a little liquid flux. This is especially important on heat sensitive components like transistors and plastic ties. The iron should never need to be touching the work more than 2 seconds. If it requires more time than this, the wattage is too low or the work/tip is not clean.
BB
Blind Bruce brings up a good point about keeping the tip clean. If your iron doesn’t come with a holder, get one. It will keep the iron from rolling around and burning things–and you! The holder should have a sponge in it. You dampen the sponge and wipe the crud off the iron tip on the sponge. Right after you clean the tip, touch a little bit of solder to it. A “wet” tip–one with a little liquid solder on it–transfers heat much faster than a dry tip. I’ve been working in electronics for many, many years, and have never used soldering paste. The flux in the core of the solder, like the Kester 44 60/40 rosin core solder is sufficient. It would help when soldering feeder wires to rails, though, but I’ve never had to use it with my N scale rail.
I solder the wires to all my Tortoise switch motors by stripping the wire, pushing it through the circuit board from the backside (no foil traces), and soldering the wire on the front or trace side. You can pu***he insulation tight against the board from the back, then trim off the excess wire on the front after it’s soldered. A good practice is to trim the wire even with the top of the “tent” formed by the solder.
Most if not all of my motors have been accessible from the side, which helps a lot. If you don’t like soldering upside down under the layout, solder a wire harness with a terminal strip to the Tortoise before you install it. I don’t use edge-card connectors with my Tortoises because I’ve found them so reliable that I don’t see the need for quick-change wiring.
I also use the Weller 25w iron for soldering. The only problem I have had is trying to find the replacement tips. Finally found a “Old Time” Feed/Hardware store locally that has ordered them in for me. Most of the “discount” home improvement stores have the Weller 25w iron but don’t sell the tips. (They recommend just buying a new one… Yeh! Right!)
Actually they are quite robust. I have only done 4 of them, but there was no problem with any. I wouldn’t want to use a 400 watter and leave it in contact for a minute or so but… These solder very easily and quickly so don’t worry about messing up the machine.
