Soldering N scale track - advice please

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

I am attempting to start my first ever layout (in N scale) and was wondering what your advice is on soldering the connectors to the rail.

I am using a 30 Watt soldering pen but it takes forever to heat the connectors and the plastic underneath the rail is startting to melt.

Should I be using a diferent soldering pen/gun? Does it normally take this long to heat the connectors? Any technique that you have dicovered works best that you'd be willing to share?

Thank you!

[Don Gibson]

1. Find some RESIN soldering flux. Bottle or paste.
2 . BUY a 2 stage soldering GUN. 50 - 150 WATTS.($15)
3. buy 2 clamp type HEAT SINK'S (cheap)

[egmurphy]

A 30 watt pen should be fine for N scale connectors. The only suggestions I have are:
1. Be sure you let the soldering iron heat up completely before using it.
2. Tin the tip before soldering.
3. I use a bit of liquid flux on the joint, others prefer paste flux.
4. Hold the tip to the inside of the joint while holding the solder against the outside.

It should melt within a couple of seconds.


You might also try the advanced search feature (see upper ight part of the page) and try searching on " soldering rail". I'm pretty sure it's been discused before.

Regards

Ed

[Wdlgln005]

You want to melt the flux and not the plastic. You could make a tool to hold the rail while you solder. MLR used to make a tool set just for this purpose. You might also want a device to hold your hot iron while getting things set.

[howmus]

The trick to soldering small anything is to use a small (the 30 watt you have is great, I use a 25 watt for HO) soldering iron that is already up to temp. Get in make the joint and get out! One way to do that is to use the flux as has been suggested. Put a very small amout on the rail where you are going to solder. Pretin the wires. ie: put a little solder on them with the hot iron before you solder them to the track. Make sure the track is clean at the spot you will be soldering. Tin the tip of the iron. ie: put solder on it. In fact you may not need to add any more solder to the joint. Touch the iron to the wire and rail. In a second or so the solder will pull into the rail (you will see it) and spread. Immediately remove the soldering iron. If you do this right, you will not melt the ties. Practice on a few scrap pieces of track until this becomes easy and you are on your way!

Have fun with your trains!

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your advice and help; I feel a bit stupid for not using "heat sinks" or not warming up the soldering iron long enough, but now I think I got it and got all the track together, now the next challenge is the road bed, ballasting, scenery, etc. :-)

By the way, I used mini (1/4") binder clips for heat sinks, they worked great.