When solo soldering the feeder wires to the track, try small wood slices (round toothpicks work well if the drilled hole is small enough) to wedge the wire in place, making the soldering easy. Nice video!
I am glad to see you not cutting off the last sleeper to get the rail joiners on, this is what I do, remove the spike/chair. I see so many people cutting off the sleepers and leaving them off so there is a gap or having to put them back in. Great video too.
Dear Larry, great instructional video. Love the way you’ve included the ‘bad’ joint. It’s indeed those instances where the ‘tug check’ or any other check people may come up with, are the easiest things to forego or forget. And of course those ‘bad joints’ are the ones which will need a lot of search effort whenever the joint gives up all by itself. Very much like the bent dog leg method. Humbly think a small jig with an attached spring loaded plier can be very helpful to perform the keep in place action whilst soldering. Cheerio
Kia ora Larry, of all the 100's (probably more like 1000's if I'm honest) of videos I've watched relating to model railways I've never seen that great tip of just cutting the tie and not removing the sleeper. As I model in N Gauge laying track can be a real challenge if not using set track. Many thanks from Aotearoa.
I find your videos very instructive. I have been using a standard Exacto blade to cut the ties at the end of a section of track. Thanks for showing how to use a #17 blade to cut the ties. It is good to see that even a pro doesn't get the solder right the first time. 😄 What is the brand and wattage of the soldering iron that you use?
Thanks Larry, great tutorial. Have you ever soldered your feeder wires to the bottom of the rail or used wired terminal joiners that are soldered to the rails? What is your opinion on each as opposed to what you showed?
Solderi g to rail bottoms usually means doing it in advance and then fiddling with installing them essentially like the frog feeders I showed last time. With the method I showed here you can very close to putting them under the rail and then the ballast will take cars of the rest. I’ve never liked the terminal joiners, always just found it easier to solder the wires, plus its one last thing to deal with.
Scott lock wire are not good. 😢 Use wago type unit. 😊 Scott lock will keep cutting the wire until you have a open. Wago clamp the wire they co e form 2 to 6 join. You can reused them over and over. I build police, fire and public work vehicle. When I see the Scott lock on the wire in vehicle. I cut the wire on both side and used wago. Before that was but connector with heat shink. Also we don't sold the join. But sold each independent section of track under the track and the drill hole where the wire go. This is the fast way to do feeder. You teach something form the pass 20 years. Then i can talk about the power decorating. But that is something else with dcc.
The regular rule for attaching dropper wires appears to be “black to the back” I tend to think as follows. When following the track in a clockwise direction, I work by “red to the right”, the two “R’s”. Is this a valid alternative? ps. Thank you for so many useful and easy to follow videos.
With DCC friendly switches can you put feeders pretty much any where as opposed to being at the point end of the switch as we used to do with analogue all rail switches or electro frog switches.
As I said in the video the only feeders you need on a turnout like this one is at the frog. Otherwise all the rails are powered when connected to live rails at each end.
Larry do you recommend using Rosen core solder to help the flow of your solder when you heat it? I used to buy Rosen core solder at radio shack stores and it was superb for this application however I found that you need to clean up the acid from the melted solder joints, because it will decay the wire over time and the joint will break off. What do you think of that product
Rosin core solder is not acidic it is pine sap. Now a lot of non-acidic rosin is synthetic. I use additional paste rosin flux in cases where I am applying a lot of heat since you can easily burn off all the rosin in the solder before it can do its thing. However for small jobs such as electrical wiring or components I just use the rosin core solder alone.
Certainly from my past industrial experience there is nothing noticeable in it, certainly not for model railway use. You also will have to heat up another 30deg C or so to get the SAC alloy solder to flow - that I would suggest would increase the probability of more dry joints as well as slightly more damage to any surrounding plastic…… skin, clothes. As Larry, it’s way more expensive, silver isn’t cheap!
Yes, I should have mentioned that earlier. You can use a heavier gauge wire until you get just below the feeder and then drop,down to the smaller gauge wire for the feeder.
Most of them I do solder but I do leave scattered ones to provide expansion and contraction joints. These are especially necessary if the layout is an area that undergoes a wide range of temperatures such as a garage, attic, unheated outbuilding, etc. In my basement the temp stays in the mid to upper 60s and about 50% relative humidity year round so it isn’t a problem for me.
The only problem with most soldering irons is that they have no way to turn them off without unplugging them or turning off the outlet they're connected to. If I buy one of my own, I'll install a switch so I can turn it off while I'm not using it so I don't burn myself or start a fire. Better to play it safe than hope it'll be fine and come back to a house or workshop that went up in flames.
Weller and other vendors make soldering stations that incorporate an ON/OFF switch as well as other features and enhancements that might address your concerns, as well as improve the quality and ease of use.
I am using electrical timer on an extension cord in an plastic electrical box. If you forget to unplug the soldering iron the timer will automatically shut off. Very safe
