Resistance Soldering ??

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Has anyone tried resistance soldering for rail joints and or feeders? What type/make equipment was used etc.?? I have been in electronics for many years and am an excellent solderer but am looking for something quicker / cleaner and less work.

If I am going to solder something, I always spend the extra money for low melting point solder (silver alloy) and get Edson multi-core solder, (small guage like 22 ) which had 5 small cores of flux not just one, (go to a supply house and buy a 5 lb. roll, it will last a long long time and the cost is not that bad.) it always flows and works much better. Also it has been my experience that joint preperation (ie cleaning where you intend to solder) rather than relying on the flux to do the cleaning, Makes a better and quicker joint. Most problems with getting things to "stick" have to do with oxide on the surface of the metels to be joined. Clean, Clean, Clean and it will not need much flux, or heat to make a good joint.

One other area often negelegted is the Iron tip. Keep a wet sponge near by and wipe off execess solder, and re-tin the tip just prior to soldering a joint. It the tip is burnt up and coroded you get no heat transfered to the joint and instead heat everywhere else and cause problems. Proper tip maintance is essential to good soldering.

-- David J. Pruner (espassoc@glasscity.net), January 29, 2001

Answers

David,

I use a PBL Hot tip 300W resistance unit for all my rail work. I use the tweezers and grip the feeder wire to the side of the rail and hold the wire in place until the solder is cool. For rail joiners, I place the tweezers with one electrode on the bottomof the joiner and the other bridging the gap between the 2 rails. Works like a champ. I use the 200 watt position. This heats everything quickly so there is almost no melting of the adjacent ties.

I find the fine solder too small. It takes too long to get enough solder to flow in the joint. I use about a 16 gauge flux core solder, Ersin multicore bit saver when I have it.

Any resistance unit will work ok - but I think the tweezers make the job successful.

Dale.

-- Dale Gloer (dale.gloer@sympatico.ca), January 30, 2001.


See my web page. There is a whole section on soldering, including resistance soldering.

http://www.WiringForDCC.com

Allan Gartner

"One of these days" I have a whole bunch to add to the soldering page. Check again in six months maybe?????

-- Allan Gartner (WiringForDCC@augustmail.com), January 30, 2001.


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