QUOTE (cunnini @ 23 Apr 2008, 15:57)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>i want to solder the electrical connections to the track - can i use some 1.5mm electrical cable? ('cos i have some already!)
also,
soldering these - any advice (never done it before and woried about melting sleepers! - it's peco finescale 55 track if that matters)
thx
**Trev - never mistake discussion for argument.... it aint
OK..Soldering to rail.... its after midnight here and I've just got home from dropping my daughter at the airport for a flight to Helinski via Hong Kong... and still have lots of email to answer before bed, so if there ae any spelling mistakes its because I'm tired & typing in a rush......
1.5 mm wire is to my way of thinking FAR too stiff and heavy for a dropper, especially if you are talking mains cable. Use a finer wire that has many fine strands rather than only a few heavy ones. Don't use it as it'll end up ugly - and if you aren't confident woth a soldering iron, its far harder to solder than smaller better wire anyway....
Re wire weight: Especially in N scale this is ONE place where smaller hookup wire such as 7/.2mm would be fine
- providing you add droppers every meter of track at least, and keep them less than 300mm long.
Even thought its a light weight wire as a dropper it will never have to carry high current providing the overload / short protection in your DCC system is the standard fast acting type, and you wll find the smaller wire much easier to work with...so will make better more reliable and neater joints to the rail
Soldering. As Trevor advised, Solder under not to the side of the rail - before you lay the track.
soldering iron - 25 watts or better, I recommend the Antex XS25 as a super nice Iron to use... with a 2mm or so chisel tip.
Whatever you use the tip must be clean and shiny to convey the heat to the joint. have a damp sponge by the iron and wipe the tip on it before every joint to keep it shiny.
Use lead bearing solder - the lead free stuff is much harder for an amateur to do a good job with. Its still available if you look for it - eail me if yo ucan't get what U need.
You won't melt anything if the Iron is big eough - but if you use a wimpy one it'll take so long to heat the rail proerly that it'll do a lot of melting of plastic too! For this type of work, a bigger iron with a fine tip is much better than a wimpy one.
* cut a bit of the web away between sleepers
* clean the area with a fine file so its super shiny - even on new rail.
* apply a little flux (not acid flux - resin or similar non acid only)
* put a wee bit of solder on the tip and apply to the rail to "tin" it. this should take about 1/2 a second with a clean soldering iron tip and clean rail+flux.
*stripthe end of the wire and twist it tightly. (about 1cm)
*tin the wire end the same way as you tinned the rail - add flux then apply Iron with a bit of solder - not too much.
*bend the tinned end at a right angle and cut off the end of the L at about 3mm long.
* put this 3mm end to the rail with a bit of flux added again. apply the iron. This should take about 1 second for the solder on the pre-tinend rail and wire to flow together with little or no added solder needed.
*when the solder has flowed hold it dead still for a count of 3~5seconds then it will be cold enough to let go - and you should have a perfect joint.
It really is that easy.
Practice on a bit of scrap rail - a perfet joint should take almost no time at all - if it takes longer than 2 seconds of Iron application, you need a tip on the iron or a new Iron, better quality solder or flux or perhaps you need to clean the rail better...
Richard
DCCconcepts
