How much soldering of trackwork is needed? At every joint? Or solder every few joints and simply squeeze the rail joiners together for a tight fit on the other joints? Does anyone have a link to a tutorial on soldering track? I’ve done several searches using keywords like soldering, track soldering etc but nothing turns up.
Jarrell
Jarrell, here is a link that may answer some of your questions.
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/solder.htm
There is no hard and fast rule to this. You need to determine your own standard and move forward. I decided to follow the rule that “every section of track is soldered to something” So on my layout, each track section, including turnouts, either has a soldered track feeder or, is soldered to an adjacent track piece. Thus, there are no sections of track, no matter how short that rely on a track joiner alone for electrical continuity. This may be overkill, but I decided for the short time it takes to solder, it was worth eliminating future problems with dry joints from unsoldered rail joiners.
Well this is what I plan on doing on the next layout. Soldering feeders to each rail and not soldering any joiners also that have to be some allowance for exspansion of the rail. I will not solder any turnouts you never know when you will have to replace one.
Thanks for the tips and the link. Another question on soldering flex track together is: Is the idea to heat the rail joiner AND the ends of both the rails of flex track at the same time, then touch the solder to those 3 things and hopefully it will flow into and around them to create a good electrical connection?
Jarrell
Jarrell,
Two secrets to soldering
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Clean surfaces. Important if you are using weathered track or painted track to clean it off before soldering.
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Extra Flux. Buy some Rosin paste flux and apply to the joint before soldering, even if you are using rosin core. A couple of buddies I have use no corrode brand acid flux for track slodering without any problems. They reccomend washing it off after soldering with some water. I have tried this and it works much better than the rosin flux, but washing the track is a hassle.
Practice on some scraps first…
Jarrell, I like to use the electronics grade rosin core solder. I remove 3 ties from the end of each section of flextrack (keeping the ties to slide back later) and join 2 sections at the bench. Make sure you have the sliding rail (atlas flex) on the same side!! Then join the track with the joiners. I place my soldering iron on the outside of the rail join right on top of the joiner. Hold for a couple of seconds and then touch the solder to the top of the joiner in the groove formed between the joiner and each track section. The solder quickly flows into the joiner. Quickly do the same for the other piece of track. In this way I create 6’ sections on the bench which I can then install on the layout.
Jarrell,
Another thing to remember is that heat flows from hot to cold. This is important becaust the rail will absorb the heat from the iron at a slower rate than the lower mass joiner. Therefore, if you heat the joiner first, the rail will not be hot enough tomelt the solder. The way to do it with “outer space” type reliability is to place the iron on the fluxed RAIL and when the solder melts on the rail, you can be assured that the joiner is also hot enough.
This applies to wire attachment to rail as well if you decide not to solder the joiners.
BB
While you’re at the bench, think about soldering the feeder wires to the rail joiners at the same time. For one thing, that way it’s possible to solder the feeders to the bottom of the joiners and the wires will be much less visible.
One more question on soldering track. Wattage-wise, how big an iron is needed? Is a 30 watt too little?
Thanks for all the above information, it’s a big help!
Jarrell
Jarrell;
30 watt is fine.
Jim
The only place I solder track joints is when I solder two pieces of flex track together before formign a curve. This helps prevent a kink at the joint that WILL fall somewhere in the curve (except for short cosmetic curves. At my 30" minimum radius, anything over about 45 degrees of curvature will end up havign a joitn in it). I would NEVER solder a turnout in place. If anythign is going to fail, it’s goign to be a moving aprt liek a turnout, not a section of plain straight track. Since I DON’T sodler turnouts, I can easily slide back the rail joiners and lift one out if required. I actually already did that at one spot, where I decided to not include the siding I original planned for. Slid back the joiners, slight prey with a putty knife to loosen the caulk, and out came the turnout,t o be reused elsewhere. I even lifted the Tortoise out of the hole and reused that. Glued a scrap of foam back in the hole, put in a new strip of roadbed, and cut a piece of flex track to fit the gap, voila, back to a continuous main.
–Randy
So Randy, what do you do on the other joins… just tighten the railjoiners with pliers?
Thanks,
Jarrell
I agree with Randy (how about that two Randys in agreement! must be worth something) I solder only on curves, BEFORE I bend the flex track into the curvature so that I insure a smooth curve. In addition I gap all joints , including turnouts, 20 thousands to allow for rail expansion. Unless you have a perfectly controlled enviroment (both humity and temp you will need room for growth and shrinkage.
Randy Johnson
Jarrell,
Do as I say, Not as I do. Solder your track joints and put feeder wires every three feet or so. I did not follow this wisdom and have had track joint separation problems as the warmer weather has caused my benchwork to expand slightly. The end result is I’ve had to go back and solder and add feeder wires. A job which is much easier before than after.
Continued Success on the layout,
Trevor
On my foam layouts, I’ve found that expansion is a non-issue, so I solder every joint EXCEPT at switches. I also add drop feeders every 3-4 feet. Electrical pickup through the rails is one of the weak points of this hobby, and I want to make sure that as much of the rail as possible is electron friendly.
Jarrell, there is no problem leaving all the joints unsoldered except on the curve. Don’t worry about tightening the rail joiners, just make sure you have track feeders on each section of track. If you crimp the rail joiners too tight there will no expanision ability either.
For the best soldering, you need a HOT iron. Most 30 watt irons won’t get hot enought to do a quick (but good) soldering job.
The secret to soldering track is to get in, solder the track, and get out before the rail heats up enough to damage the plastic ties. I use a 100 watt gun preheated until it brealy starts to smoke, and a daub of flux on the rail (for a feeder) or inside the rail joiner. I put a drop of solder on the end of the tip, and hit the rail with the iron. The rail heats up REALLY fast, melts my fine solder that I apply to the OTHER side of the rail, and I’m done is just a couple of seconds. It takes very little solder to make the connnection. I’ve never had a connection fail, and almost never melt a tie, even when soldering a connection between the rails.
Mark in Utah
P.S. I don’t remove a rail when I solder a connection as long as I have the room to fit the iron between the ties.
Over time I have found that problems with expansion and contraction have little to do with rail and everything to do with the supporting surface. Homasote is particularly bad, but so is MDF.
My track is laid on 1/2" plywood. I solder everything, including switches. In 40 years of building HO layouts, I have had to remove only one switch because of a mechanical failure. The layout is in a garage the middle of the Sonoran Desert where the heat reaches 110 degrees or more routinely and have never had a problem with rail expansion.
I’m not trying to be contrarian, just sharing my own experience…[:)]
John Timm
Whew… I… huh. I think I’m going to solder the joints… well, most all of them anyway. Not the turnouts. Boy I have a lot of soldering to do since I’ve used quite a few pieces of sectional track. I don’t quite trust my track laying skills yet.
I really appreciate all the suggestions and opinions and if I’ve learned ONE thing in MRing so far, that is there are usually several ways to do just about anything.
Jarrell
I do the following, which I believe is a combo of what everyone has said above:
I solder all joints except turnouts
I solder the flex track pieces together before bending them around the curve
I have a little “jig” that I built to solder the track pieces together - it holds them flat