I have expanded my layout another 100 square feet. I don’t want to use lockons to get the power to the tracks, too costly and not attractive. The first few attempts have not gone that well. I am using a dremel to clear off some of the tarnish, but it takes time for the solder to stick and its lumby. Any suggestions?
flower123,
Sounds like you need more heat. Soldering a wire to a circuit board trace or another small wire is one thing, but soldering to a big chunk of metal, like a track rail, is quite something else, because all that metal acts like a “heat sink.” What you are creating sounds to me like “cold solder joints.” Not good things.
In addition to all the sanding and scraping, I sometimes add a little rosin-type soldering paste to the rosin that is in the core of the solder tube itself, which may not be enough.
The track needs to get hot enough so that it, and not the gun/iron, melts the solder; which should flow smoothly and be very shiny until it cools, which may take a while. You can’t move the wire during the cooling process. Rather than solder to the flange, some folks slide a screwdriver into the gap at the very bottom of each (traditional type) rail, insert the wire, and remove the screwdriver. This pinches the wire and holds it firmly during the remainder of the process.
I am assuming that the rails you are soldering your wires to are traditional Lionel three-rails, or the like, rather than some of the exotic types produced by some manufacturers today. These may take special solder, special flux, or may not be really “solderable” at all, such as stainless steel. Edit: What I should have said was that stainless steel couldn’t easily be soldered with the materials that are typically kept in most home workshops. The same goes for aluminum.
Be certain that you actually are working with stainless steel. I am under the impression that it is rarely used except with outdoor (garden) railroads.
Some folks have tried “resistance soldering” and like it. I haven’t. Check it out on the web.
After you clean the track flange, apply a thin coat of rosin to it. Clean and tin the end of your soldering iron with solder[rosin core type] then apply solder to the heated track flange to “tin” it with a small “puddle”. Then tin the wire end. Place the wire against the tinned flange, hold in place with a small screwdriver,etc, apply heat and the tinned wire will meld into the tinned flange.
I recently did this as well. I am using the rosin core 63/37 alloy from All Electronics with a 30w Weller iron, and soldered solid 14ga wire to the underside of the track.
- Sand the rails with a dremel.
- Tin the section of rail to be soldered. Heat the rail and melt some solder to the rail.
- Hold the wire in place, and solder the wire to the rail.
This solder contains lead, but melts at a lower temperature than the lead-free solder, so be extra careful with this around children. The 30w iron is a bit undersized, so it takes more time to heat up. I had the same problem with the lead-free solder as you are, so go with a lead based solder, or get a hotter iron.
Kurt
If you get frustrated with soldering, you can crimp spade connectors to the ends of your feeder wires. Then insert the connectors firmly into the underside of tinplate track. The connectors will stay in place without soldering. This method will only work if you have access to the underside of the track.
Robert
I had a heck of a time getting solder to stick to the stainless rails of gargraves track. Gave up and used spade lugs in the gap in the bottom of the rails. Has held up good so far.
STEVE
Remember that solder will not adhere to steel, nor stainless steel. When soldering to track its necessary to only clean the dirt, not the tin plating, off the rail. The tin allows the solder to stick.
All of my main feeder wires are soldered to my(tubular) track.
Here’s the method I’ve used with great results.
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Using a diamond burr on a dremel tool, clean the spot to be soldered.
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Using a 100 watt gun, heat the cleaned spot, and apply a patch of solder.
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Take a stripped and tinned wire, and hold it against the patch of solder which you just placed on the rail.
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Using the soldering gun again, heat the wire itself until the solder melts again.
Once everything cools down, the wire should be firmly attached.
Thanks to all for the information. Went to Radio Shack and bought a 100 watt gun, little more powerful then the 25 watt I was using. Pluged it in and it never heated up, but a lot of smoke did come out of the side vents. The brass tip did turn colours so it did heat to a certain degree, but never enough to melt the solder. I’ll return it tommorrow and try again.
Thanks,
Try this Oatey® Instant Solder Just apply the solder exactly where needed, then heat makes Soldering flow.
If you solder directly to the track, make sure you can physically check the adhesion on a somewhat regular basis. When I was a member of the Gateway Model Railroad Club in Jacksonville, we had one spot on the layout that would intermittently go dead. We didn’t discover the cause until we tore the layout down to move to a new location. The bond between wire and rail had broken but tension on the wire kept contact until some one walked by, the floor gave just a bit, and the contact was momentarily lost.
Oh and don’t forget the solder flux paste! You can reduce the time and temp using a good Rosin flux paste… great if you are concerned about plastic ties melting or good ahesion… Hardware stores sell a jar of it pretty cheap! Acid core is great for soldering and brazing but don’t use it for electrical joints and clean it off when your done, this stuff likes to eat everything metalic.
Actually you can, but you need to use SS flux and 40 watt soldering will be fine.
The SS flux is very very corrosive, so don’t attemp to use on others materials.
clean with wet cloth after use.
I use it with my Gargraves SS track and is fine.
my 2 cent.
A.
With my old Weller iron I’ve found that when it seems not to be generating enough heat tightening the nuts that connect the tip to the gun sometimes helps.
When I took the soldering iron back to Radio Shack, I was told they put the wrong tip on it. They replaced the tip with the original one and it works fine. Is 100 watt too powerful for this job? I have a 40 watt for other soldering jobs.
The key to a well performing soldering iron is to keep the tip clean and tinned.
A.
Thanks for the heads up! However where do I find the SS flux? ACO only had Acid core and Rosin flux paste…
Micro-Mark offers a special-solder-and-flux combination that they say will work on stainless steel.
Have you used this? Is that a plumbing solder? What type of flux core does it have if any? The flux core in standard issue plumbing solder attacks tin plated rail. Never tried this particular type. Curious.
Roger, steel is not as easy to solder as copper, brass, and tin; but it is still relatively easy, using zinc chloride flux.