how do I connect a terminal wire to a piece of track.

[RyanLaP]

Hello Advanced Modelrairoaders.[:D][:D] I need to know how you put terminal wire in a piece atlas true track. We bought the worlds greatest hobby layout and we took the track out and there was no terminal track inside the package. What do you think I should do to run my layout.[8D][8D][8D][:D][:D][:D][:)][:)][:)]





Sincerely
Ryan LaPlaca

[jimrice4449]

Assuming a novice level of soldering skil, you can look on it as a learning experience. If you don't know how to solder the likelihood is you'll wind up melting the ties on your track if you try to solder directly to the rail so get a soldering iron (Radio Shack would be a good source) and try soldering your feeder wires to a rail joiner (while unattached to the track). Once you get a good firm bond just use the rail joiner as intended and you've got your connection. You'll probably find a number of things as you get into MRR that will need to be soldered so here's a painless way to start learning.

[ARTHILL]

Eventually you will want to learn to solder wire to track. You will ruin some track on the way but you will want to learn. Some of keys people talk about a lot are
1. Use a high power gun. they don't get hotter but they keep the heat better. You want to heat the track fast. The touch the solder and let it flow. Don't heat the solder, but the track.

2. Sometimes removing some ties help, you can replace them later.

3. Use only resin core solder, and a little flux. Radio shark will help you get the right kind.

4. Solder all wires to the outside of the track and don't get any solder on the inside. You will need to clean the top of the track with a small file.

You should get a lot more good advice, but nothing replaces practice. It can be done, but it takes some leaning

[outdoorsfellar]

Well, if nothing else...... there's always 5DCC. lol.

[jrbernier]

Soldering the feeder is the best method. Short of that, buy the rail joiners with the pre-soldered feeder wires for now.

Jim Bernier

[tcwright973]

I just purchased a Craftsman 45 watt soldering iron with thoughts of learning how to do things like this. But after a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I'm beginning to think that maybe I need one of higher wattage. What is everybody else using?

Thanks,
Tom

[Don Gibson]

Soldering is so basic.

A GOOD soldering iron, two metal clips as 'heat sinks', some resen flux, resin core solder, and 22g - 24g. solid copper wire does it.

I used $12 100 watt Weller Soldering gun for years. The 'heat sinks' prevent melting ties

[tomikawaTT]

Low-wattage soldering irons are fine for electronic work (like soldering connections to DCC boards that don't have plugs.) For any soldering involving rail, you want something that gets hot fast and can transfer a lot of calories quickly. In addition to track feeders and jumpers, I solder up raw rail (suitably modified with a file) to create specialwork. My weapon of choice is an ancient 350 watt Weller soldering gun. Connecting a feeder to a rail takes about half a second, and the rail base never gets hot enough to damage the plastic ties.

[MisterBeasley]

Every now and then I sit down at the workbench and make up a bunch of rail joiners with wires on them. I think it's easier than soldering to the rail on the layout, trying to climb over the scenery with a power cord that's always 6 inches too short.

My simple rules:

1. Use a piece of scrap track to hold the joiner, everything upside-down.
2. Lay the wire across, not along, the joiner.
3. Put a pair of pliers or other weight on the wire to hold it in place.
4. Make half your wires red, and the other half black.

[jsoderq]

Mr beasley hjas the perfect solution. The atlas roadbed is made with channels for the wire coming off the rail joiners.

[emdgp92]

Bits of wet paper towels can be used as a heat sink...and so can a pair of Vise Grip pliers clamped to the rail :)

[grayfox1119]

I have used a pair of forceps as a heat sink, clamped to the track, one at either end, and this makes a very effective heat sink.

The only thing about solderin to the railjoiners, is that the rail jiners "can" develop a bad connection over time. I had one happen to me this past Fall, and I traced it back to a bad joiner. However, this was only ONE in over 5 years of use on 80 feet of track, so that is a good track record ( no pun intended ). And, if you solder a drop at every 3' section of flex track, even if you had a bad connection at ONE end, the odds that the other end of the track also had a faulty connection is mighty small.

[bcammack]

Soldering is about rapid thermal transfer.

The melting point of the ties is far lower than the melting point of the solder. The longer the iron is in contact with the rail, the farther the heat propagates. If you can get a big inrush of heat and bring the rail local to the joint to a temperature high enough to melt the solder, the heat won't travel far enough through the rail to bring the part of the rail in contact with the ties to a high enough temperature to melt them.

Use a chisel tip, not a pencil tip. You get a better contact patch on the rail that way.

Wattage isn't nearly as important as good thermal transfer. The rail touching the iron's tip doesn't sink enough heat to suck it all out of the iron before the rail's hot enough to melt the solder.

I use a 12 watt Weller miniature iron I've owned for 25 years.

Keep the tip clean and tinned. Wet the tip and rail as they come together with a dab of solder. Pre-tin the rail and the feeder with a dab of solder prior to bringing them together to make a joint.

Make sure the metal you're going to solder is bright and clean. Solder won't stick to gunk and corrosion. Using flux paste is partially a band-aid to compensate for a less-than-perfectly-clean joint and partially insurance for a better solder joint.

Flux has the function of cleaning impurities from the metals as it boils off with heat and keeping oxygen away from the heated metal while the solder bonds with it. (keeping contaminating corrosion from forming, because metal corrodes faster when it's hot)

[beegle55]

Well I have a few simple instructions, too!
1) Don't use good track if you have bad soldering skills, use old track to get the hang of it!
2) Apply heat to track, not to solder.
3) Use resin core with a little bit of flux to make good contact.
4) When all else fails, go with the pre-soldered leads from your hobby store!!
Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

I use a Wahl cordless soldering iron with a narrow tip.
I also solder the wire to a rail joiner and then solder the joiner to both rails.
All of this usually happens at the same time after I tin the wire and apply a little soldering paste to the rail joiner. The Wahl iron heats very quickly and you can get in and get out quickly.
About the only place I've been able to find these Wahl Soldering Irons is at Micro Mark.
They usually run about $55 bucks or so but they last a lifetime.
good luck,
gtr

[grayfox1119]

Brett, your reply is right on target. If I didn't know any better, I would said that you had soldered for many years in industry, like Raytheon Mfg. Co.

[Anonymous]

With that set there should have been a set of terminal rail joiners a set of rail joiners with the wire already soldered to them . If not you can get these at your local HS for a couple bucks, if you dont feel comfortable soldering your own hope this helps.

[WilmJunc]

I agree with Bruce with going with purchasing the rail joiners with the preattached wires for now to get up and running. There was a recent article in MRR that showed how to solder the wire to the track. I tried to find it but could not located it.

[simon1966]

get the joiners with wire attatched. There is a slot in the plastic road bed under where the tracks join. Make sure the wire goes down thru the slot and then under the roadbed to your powerpack. The important thing is to make sure that the wire does not get trapped between the road bed pieces.

[Anonymous]

on one loop i merely drilled a hole through the rail web and wrapped the wire through the hole and around the bottom of the rail.

in order to not have any corrosion prob;ems in the future: before inserting the wire, i dipped it into some dilectric grease (silicone), and used shrinktube to keep things clean and looking nice. it's been six years and works as well as it did on day one.

[bcammack]

QUOTE: Originally posted by grayfox1119

Brett, your reply is right on target. If I didn't know any better, I would said that you had soldered for many years in industry, like Raytheon Mfg. Co.

I was taught Mil. Spec. electronic assembly and was certified for it back in the early '70s by grizzled, experienced electronic engineers at China Lake Naval Weapons Center in California. [:)]