richg1998Harold's suggestions might work.
I haven't seen or heard anything from Harold in years.
I don't need to create wipers, that's all built into the truck. All I had to do was attach a loose feeder wire to a post on the truck.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Harold's suggestions might work. I have used it some years ago.
http://www.chainsawjunction.com/1879/nt_440/wipers/
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
I was terrible at soldering when I started. I had watched several tutorials on Youtube before I started soldering feeders to my track. It looked so easy. I bought a pen type soldering iron and some solder and went right at it. The first few feeders went on just like in the videos. Then it got harder to get the solder to flow, then I was melting ties and foamboard. I made a heatsink and that helped.
Then I found a video that was just about soldering, not just soldering track feeders. Starting with the basics I learned to prepare the tip and coat it with solder first. I bought a wire tip cleaner to replace the sponge I was using.
My tip wasn't getting clean enough to heat the solder well. I'm still far from an expert but I can hardwire decoders and and not melt things. My biggest lesson was keep the tip and the part you are soldering clean and use flux. I generally tin both the part I'm going to solder to and the wire then touch them together with a little solder on the tip of the iron. A good joint in a second.
I also found an easy way to put feeders on a tender truck. I think it was from a video that was linked on this forum. Just drill a hole through the truck and put your phosphor bronze wire through it and secure with AC Solder your wire to the board to the wire pickup.
Jeff White
Alma, IL
This looks like the part you are trying to repair. The metal is underneath.
I would try to scratch the spot with an Xacto knife., use a dot of rosin flux, hot pointed soldering iron tip and rosin solder.
A few years ago I had to do a similar repair job on a Bachmann 44 tonner. Had to scratch the coating on the metal to bare metal.
Or get a new truck from Bachmann. Look at the Parts page where I got this link.
http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/images/ho_parts/517XX-OOQO1-PR.png
7j43kI use flux on pretty much every connection I make. As an experiment, I tried a couple of joints with flux-core only, and didn't like the flow. Bad part with flux is cleaning it off.
I'm starting to lean this way.
7j43kYou know, it's OK to do practice pieces until you get good enough. As opposed to practicing on important pieces "to destruction".
I'm okay at the things I do a lot of--Fastracks, feeders. etc. When I saw the loose itty-bitty wire and a glob of solder on the truck post, I didn't even consider that ti would be anything but easy-peasy.
SpaceMouse 1) Increase the temperature of the iron. 2) use a bigger tip 3) created larger surface area of contact by adding solder. 4) clean the surface
1) Increase the temperature of the iron.
2) use a bigger tip
3) created larger surface area of contact by adding solder.
4) clean the surface
For quick in and out work, 2 is better than 1. Of course, there can be a problem if the "bigness" of the tip gets in the way.
4: Yeah, the surface has to be clean. Enough.
3: Works sometimes, but 2 is better.
I use flux on pretty much every connection I make. As an experiment, I tried a couple of joints with flux-core only, and didn't like the flow. Bad part with flux is cleaning it off.
I believe your "iron" should be in contact with the work for the briefest time possible--a couple of seconds, maybe. Ideally.
You need a bit of solder on the tip to aid in heat transfer, also.
You know, it's OK to do practice pieces until you get good enough. As opposed to practicing on important pieces "to destruction".
Ed
Some of you may have heard of my distruction of a 2-6-0 tender truck trying to solder a track lead back on. At first, I blamed it on cheap plastic on the truck, which it clearly is, but that doesn't really do me any good.
Anyway, this is what it looks like since I changed it's engineering dynamic.
The point is, I may be faced with a similar situation, possibly sooner rather than later if the replacement truck comes without pick-up wires attached.
If I knew what I was doing, I probably would not have melted the truck. So I've been researching. What I've found is that ideally, I should have been heating the the truck with the iron for a maximum of two seconds. I heated the post on the truck for more like 10 seconds.
The fact that the solder on the post did not melt within the first two seconds should have been an indication I needed to make an adjustment.
What exactly needed to be done was to apply more heat for a shorter lenghth of time--and there are multiple ways of doing so.
As to which one would work the best, the answer is sort of, "you'll get a feel for it." One can only hope.
I was using a 25W Weller pencil. I also have a Weller Gun 140/100W, a Radio Shack 40W pencil, and a black thing that looks like it could warm a cup of tea in under an hour as well. Now someone suggested I get a variable soldering station and that actually looks pretty good for the amount of soldering we have to do in this hobby.
So I know some of you know soldering like the back of your... uh, we'll go with hand. Feel free to jump in and comment where you like.