Model Railway Forum

Hello all, looking for recommendations for a decent soldering iron. I have a hardware special at the moment a 35w that's next door to useless. I am trying to solder droppers to Peco track and by the time I get enough heat into the rail the adjacent sleepers are melted. I now have more than enough sleepers to replace as a result which is a pain.
Any recommendations appreciated as this is driving me mad.....

Dirk

First of all the solder may be an issue. The modern lead-free solder has a higher melting point and is harder to solder with. See if you can get some leaded 60/40 solder.

A second hand Weller TCP iron would be a good choice as they are well made and last many years. They come with a mains power supply and the iron runs on 24V and is rated at 45W if I remember correctly. You can get replacement bits and elements if required. The bits come in different temperature ranges and they have a number on the back which signifies what temperature they operate at.

I am surprised you are struggling with a 35W iron as normally a 40W iron is more than adequate for soldering to rails. Many have the misconception that a higher wattage is hotter, however all it means is that the metal you are soldering to acts as a heat sink drawing heat from the iron and a higher wattage iron replenishes that heat quicker enabling quicker soldering. As you have experienced the longer you linger the more the heat sinks into the rail and sleepers begin to melt long before the metal reaches soldering temperature.

Your problems could be down to using unleaded solder or technique, there is further advice in the techniques section about soldering and is well worth a read.

Richard

PS I meant the electrical section

Is the rail spotlessly clean. I alway rub the surface with a file or fibreglass pen to clean off any residue.

This section talks a lot about soldering which may help? viewtopic.php?p=707#p707

A tip I can offer if I may, us to remove some of the plastic sleepers from the end of the track piece to be soldered at the time, these can be replaced by copperclad board cut into strips with gaps cut between the rails to prevent shorting the power.

Definitely as has been mentioned in other posts, the bottoms of the rails need to be spotless otherwise the solder will not stick to the rails. Would I be right in saying that your track is 3 rail, if so then I would certainly cut cmgaps in the copperclad sleepers between the rails ( single sided copperclad board is recommended ), the idea behind this tip being that the dropper wires can be soldered to the copperclad pieces and therefore minimise the risk of destroying the plastic sleepers and necessitating their replacement.

Althogh I model in 2 rail, something that I have been doing recently is re-spacing the sleepers on some of my flexi track which in turn gives me some to be used as spares or can be used to make additional pieces if you have lengths of rail available without sleepers fitted.

Hope this helps.

I had a good study of this iron I am having problems with and I don't think it's reaching full temperature. I did a comparison with a really old iron and the difference was chalk and cheese although in fairness I have no idea of the wattage of this old iron. I think I might ditch this cheapo iron and buy a better quality unit.

On the other side my solder stock I have 2 rolls 60-40 and another unmarked roll except it says electrical. I can't recall actual.y ever using it in recent times but it looks a bit heavy probably 2mm or so.

I run a file over the undersides of the rails and use an acid based flux. I am going to give it another shot with some new solder and I'll have a read of the article Brian recommend.

Thanks heaps to all for the hints. This really is a brilliant forum.

Dirk