This may sound like a lazy guy question, but is there a way to secure two wires of different sizes with solder paste without heating the paste? Both have spade connectors so I'm wondering if solder paste will harden without heat.
I know this is a bad concept, but I want to try it.
Mike Thomasson
mreagantBoth have spade connectors
Why not just run a screw with a nut through the spade connectors and snug them down? Or, of course, there's always a small terminal block.
Solder paste has a wide range of melting points but a minimum is around 280°F. It is primarily designed for surface mount devices on PC boards.
Good Luck, Ed
Thanks. I didn't want to go into greater detail, but the connection is already a 3 way patch from the command station to a split in the buss wire which is split going to both sections coming in from both directions and are secured with a screw and metal washer. Problem is that one of the 12g wires keeps coming loose and I don't seem to be able to get it to stay in the spade and crimping doesn't seem to get tight enough to hold it. I'll keep working on it and may try a terminal block.
If you're not keen on soldering under the layout and the spade connectors are giving you fits (the sleeve has to be sized to the wire) then I'd suggest genuine Wago lever connectors:
You can get them in various configurations. When I use them, where appropriate, I like to stick them to the benchwork with Velcro Dots.
The video mentions 14ga. wire but the Wago site mentions the 221 is good for 12ga. I would have to check mine to be sure.
Another thing you might try if you're not interested in soldering is try some wire glue. It is conductive but it will secure different size wires as needed. I have used it in a few places to fix some electrical conductivity problems.
Try Posi-taps, my whole layout uses them and they are cheap in bulk.
No, no, no, don't use solder paste without heating and fusing it. The substance has no real strength when dry, and the only binder of the metal particles is flux... which affects metals in a variety of ways you do NOT want to leave unattended.
If you don't like running the iron, get some of the extremely low-melting type (with its corresponding flux) and use that with something appropriate like a lighter or heat gun.
I don't like wire glue for structural joints, and never have. On the other hand I happily fixed broken traces with nickel print...
Seriously, soldering isn't that hard. In this hobby, knowing how to solder is almost a necessity. This is a good point to overcome your reluctance to solder so you will just be able to do it the next time.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.