this is a spade connector
Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!
K1a - all the way
Solder. Wrap the bared copper mono-filament 22 gauge wire end around a bared bit mid-bus (I use 16 gauge speaker wire for my reaches away from a 14 gauge copper bus) and tin it. The idea is to do several of these at a time. Get six or eight feeders ready for tinning and then go at it once the iron is ready.
I knew nothing about soldering when I entered the hobby seven years ago. Zilch. Nada. Rien. But all the old dawgs said soldering was the best way to go and to quit being such a girly-boy. That didn't sit well with this retired military type, so I got what I needed and began to solder. Soon I was even soldering my own handlaid turnouts.
Call me a girly-boy will ya?
The so called suitcase/scotchlock connectors are a carry over from the automotive industry. I personally do not like them for several reasons. One. There is that one and only very small contact area between the blade and the wire. For something that is supposed to carry 5 amps of current I would prefer to have more contact area. Two. The dissimilar metals between the copper wire and the soft alloy steel blade with any slight increase in humidity will encourage corrosion. While this may not be an issue in a home temperature and humidity controlled environment, on modular railroads I have pealed away quite a few green connectors. Third. Expense. Solder is a whole lot cheaper.
Use what you want. Its your railroad. Butt you did ask.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
What is a "spade connector"?
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
I use suitcase connectors that allow spade connectors to plug into them. Don't have to worry about soldering, just plug-n-play. Using these, I don't have to worry about the mismatch in the wire size between the bus & the feeder.
Gordon
I solder because it's cheap and convenient. No need to look for the right size connector in the middle of a work session. Besides, I used to do some overhead welding. There's nothing like a welding spark sizzling in your ear way and no way to make it stop. Believe me, solder is much cooler then molten steel when it hits bare skin.
Martin Myers
Suitcase connectors should be fine if you use the right ones. They are specified for the wire sizes they can handle, and using one that is for a maximum of #16 wire on #14 is pretty much guaranteed to be unreliable, as it will probably cut too far into the #14 and weaken it. Ditto the reverse, a suitcase connector for #12 wire won't make proper contact with smaller #14 wire.
Me, I solder, because it's cheap. Step 1 is using the right tools. You need a stripper like the Ideal STripmaster which can easily peel back a section of insulation int he middle of the wire without cutting it. Where feeders need to attach, you strip back a small section of insulation, strip the end of the feeder, and then wrap it tightly. I use solid wire for my feeders, so tightly wrapping it actually works until I get around to solderign them all. To solder, throw out that 15-25 watt iron that works great for instllign decoders, you need a 150 or so watt soldering GUN. They heat up quickly, and transfer plenty of heat to the wire joint so that soldering goes fast and easy.
Everyone seems afraid of having hot solder drop on them. Only in the dead of winter do I wear jeans, usually I'm in shorts - especially if I'm not plannign to go outdoors even when it is cold. My layout is about 4' high on the bottom where the wires are. Sitting on the floor, I've never burned myself while solding feeder wires. If the solder blobs so mugh that it drips, you are feeding it too fast, or the joint isn't hot and you are feeding it into the soldering gun tip. Solder normally wicks into a heated joint. ANd if it DOES drip off, the blobs hitting the ground are normally not that hot anyway I don't recommend you deliberately try this to test out this theory, but I've never been hurt by this in all my years of workign underneath layouts. The worst damage I ever did was a slight burn on a finger when I was using a regular soldering iron and reached over and (momentarily, I can assure you) grabbed the wrong end. Solderign guns have a trigger switch and shut off when you let go, and while they don;t cool off instantly, they do cool down pretty quickly. Plus, mine has a light on teh front that illuminates the working space, which also helps when workign underneath.
Another thign that helps, I use wire ties and holders to keept he wires neat underneath, however I do not bundle and tighetn up the wires until I am done soldering the feeders. This makes it easier to pick out the correct wire to work with, and helps keep it from being close to another wire when soldering so you don't melt insulation on an adjacent wire.
Do not fear soldering. It's really pretty easy to get the hang of, and doing it on relatively heavy wire such as used for the power bus is an easy way to get practice. There's not much danger in damaging anything as you learn, compared to attempting to solder fine wires liek in DCC decoders, or electronic parts that can be easily killed by excess heat.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I am rewiring my layout for DCC. On my DC layout I used suitcases to join feeders to the common wire (16 gauge) and cab wires (18 gauge) and I was entirely satisfied. I once read that using suitcases with 14 gauge bus wire may not be the right thing to do. I am a bit uncomfortable at the idea to strip bus wires and soldering under the bench. How do you join feeders with bus wires?