Soldering track has always been an Achilles heal. Whenever I do, I always end up with big messy blob of solder. I’m using a 250-watt soldering gun on Peco Code 55 track. Any help is greatly appreciated.
have you read thru this recent thread
I brush a small amount of paste flux into the rail joiners and on the last 1/8th inch of the sides of the rails just before putting the track pieces together. Outer edges of the rails only. After they are together I heat the joint and apply the solder. The paste flux will wick the solder onto the rails and into the joiner effectively welding the joint tofether.
That was my attitude about soldering as a teen, but then I learned about basic soldering techniques like using a clean iron, and flux.
Make sure your soldering iron tip is clean - rub it on a wet sponge. Then tin the tip by melting a bit of solder onto the tip. Brush flux on the area to be soldered on the rail.
I also use heat sinks to draw off the heat so as to avoid melting ties. Mine are little spring loaded clamps from Radio shack - not sure if they are available but you could use alligator clips in a pinch.
I use a 35 watt iron for track work with liquid flux.I have been building some old Suydam metal buildig kits and use a 150 watt iron with liquid flux on them.I alsouse metal for heat sinks to try to control the spread of heat to the area I am working on.
Throw away the soldering gun. They are nothing but trouble. They take too long to heat up and they run way too hot.
Get yourself a nice soldering iron. It is always hot, and if you spend the coin, you can get one with temperature control. LION does not have one of those yet, but him really should get one for the number of tips that him burns up.
Shiny and with a point! What rubbish, mine is black and pitted and is as sharp as a hollowed out pencil eraser. Ergo, it is in aleful shape, and it will have to be replaced before attempting any fine work, but for soldering wires to nail binding posts, hey it works, why take out a new one, not that I never keep less than three new tips on hand. But I burn them up pretty fast. I am hoping a better, temperature controled iron with better tips will solve this issue, but no matter how much I spend, there will always be a lazy LION on the other end, so what the heck.
ROAR
I bought a Weller gun at Home Depot that has a dual action (100/140 watt) trigger and that worked pretty well for me on code 83 track. I used appropriate flux and solder and used a pair of alligator clips by the joint to absorb heat and prevent tie melting.
First, Surfaces must be clean and shiny. Clean and buff bright the rail ends you are going to solder. A wire brush in a Dremel works well. Or use a small hand held wire brush. Use new shiny rail joiners. After a few months kicking around the layout, the inside of the rail joiner, where you cannot get at it, oxidizes and solder won’t stick to the oxide. File the cut ends of the rail off square.
Second. Use rosin flux. The rosin core in the solder isn’t enough for soldering rail. smear a dab of flux on each side of the rail. Don’t use acid flux. Don’t use “water wash” flux. Use 60:40 tin lead solder. Don’t use 50:50 solder, don’t use “Lead Free” solder, don’t use silver solder.
Third. Tin your iron/gun. The tip wants to be bright and shiny with molten solder. If the tinning is gone, use a lot of flux, file off the burned spots til the tip gets bright. Or replace the tip. Soldering iron tips will last longer if you get a metal stand to place the hot iron into. Radio Shack has them. Touching the metal of the stand keeps the tip cooler. Left to itself, burning in air, the tip can get hot enough to burn the tinning off. A tinned iron will flow heat into the work faster than a burnt and cruddy one. If using a gun, pull the trigger and allow a little time for the tip to heat before touching it to the work. Some tips are made of iron, plated with something. Once the plating burns off, exposing the iron underneath, they are almost impossible to re tin.
Fourth: Use alligator clips (Radio Shack again) as heat sinks to avoid melting too many ties. Touch the iron or gun tip to the rail joiner. Heat until the rail is hot enough to melt the solder.
Fivth: Joints on curves should be soldered before you lay the track. Solder the tw
I have the exact same model soldering gun. It works very well for me.
First of all, as someone else said ditch the 10,000 watt gun! (I know I was exagerating). Almost all my soldering is done with a little Weller 25w iron. You do not need nor want a large solding iron. You don’t want a huge amount of heat, you want the right amount of heat and you want to transfer that heat as quickly as possible and get out of there. Here are a couple short videos I took from a clinic on soldering I did for the local NMRA Divsion a few years ago. I learned to solder from a gentleman who made a living repairing electronic Audio/Music equipment. His Father owned a TV Repair Place (Back in the days they did those thisng) and he lerned to solder from his dad. His Dad learned it as an electronics repairman in the Air force during WWII. The trick is to use extra rosin flux at the joint and put a drop of solder on the end of the soldering iron and then touch the joint. The transfer of heat (and the solder) will happen very quickly. As soon as the solder flows to the joint get out of there… You are done and you will have a good , solid, clean joint! Every time!
73
My instinctive reaction is that you are using too much solder and you are applying it to the tip of the gun instead of the track.
Get the thinest solder you can find. For heat sinks, I use hemostats which I buy from allelectronics.com
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/HM-1/5-STRAIGHT-TIP-HEMOSTAT/1.html
I put the iron on the rail and the joiner on the inside of the track and apply the solder to the outside.
YOU ONLY NEED ENOUGH TO FLOW INTO THE JOINER. You do not need to cover the outside.
Remove the heat as quickly as possible.
Thanks for all your help guys. I’m going to kick some butt up there tonight.