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Some Tricky Soldering

richbrummitt

Entry posted by richbrummitt

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The TOUs are finally finished. A little jig was made up to quickly and easily bend consistently sized dropper wires in left and right hand forms. These are long enough to fully engage the brass tubes fixed to the moving sleeper (no longer visible) but not so long that they have any chance of causing a short by touching the brass housing of the TOU. They are then fitted and carefully soldered to the underside of the switch rails.

 

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Once painted, ballasted etc. they it should be near enough invisible. The only part that remains on display is the small amount of wire protruding under the stock rail that prevents the toes lifting.

 

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A series of specially adapted hair grips are used to hold the various parts in the right place and ensure an adequate switch rail gap whilst soldering. A steel rule is used to check that the switch rail and stock rail have the head at the same height. The first side is fixed easily but then this must be held a half millimetre from the stock rail to ensure an adequate gap and the other side clipped to the stock rail. With all that checked and held the join can be made with a fine tip on the soldering iron whilst the dropper is held up under the stock rail with tweezers.

 

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Here's what the arrangement looks like for making the second join. The steel rule, rather usefully, happens to be 0.5mm thick.

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D869

Good stuff Rich. I struggled when I tried to solder wire droppers onto switch blades but that was a long time ago and I haven't tried again recently. It would be useful to see your jig if you have a photo of that.

 

Regards, Andy

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bcnPete
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Specially adapted hair grips :O That's impressive...

 

Very nice Rich and well done for sticking with it and cracking it - looks very neat and crisp indeed :good:

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queensquare
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Looking good Rich, a very neat solution. How easy would it be to sort a failed solder joint once all is painted and ballasted?

 

Jerry

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richbrummitt

It would be useful to see your jig if you have a photo of that.

I haven't but it is quite simple: a piece of tube equal to the insertion length soldered inside an angle such that the angle protrudes a little way beyond the end of the tube.You insert the wire such that the bottom aligns with the end of the tube (I use the thumbnail of the hand holding the jig as a stop) and make the first bend at 90 degrees over the end of the tube. The next bend is made around the edge of the angle in a plane perpendicular to the first bend. The cut is made against the back face of the angle to make them a consistent length. The first bend length corresponds to the length of wire under the rail and the second to the amount protruding outwards under the stock rail. The former needs to be less than the distance between sleepers and the second needs to be at least 1mm.

Specially adapted hair grips :O That's impressive...

Not really you just cut and bend them to the shapes required. They make good low force grippers.

How easy would it be to sort a failed solder joint once all is painted and ballasted?

with the same clamping mechanism it is no more difficult than a dropper wire. Given that they can swivel in the little tubes they should last....
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5050

The track assembly tools sold by Studiolith in the early days of P4 were made from modified hair grips with various width shims added for correct width clearances for blades etc.  Very useful items for the tool box!

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Donw
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Very neat Rich. I usually go a fraction more than the minimum flangeway in case t he other side doesn't seat hard you could get a wheel hit the toe. Check rails have a lead in to avoid that.

Don

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