Porkscratching

Looks really great to me, I don't think a pristine finish is the point on these anyway. With decals it's going to look brilliant! Coincidentally I'm just off to buy some paint stripper and grey primer with a view to re assembling some of my junk spares box parts into a wagon or two... so looks like you've inspired me there !!

I'd be interested in how you get on sourcing decals, I've got a couple of 'scrap' loco bodies I was thinking of painting and would probably be looking for some LNER livery... Don't think any of my old odds and ends have flaking paint either, scratched, scuffed and chipped, but the remainder seems well attached, hence i wondered if originally they baked it on in some way after application.. The basic finish certainly looks to have been sprayed on initially.

Yes i should have said get a 'pair' of tubes ! The rapid version I've had success doing odd bits involving glass for the Mrs, but will grab some if the original anyway asap. I didn't think the melt point would matter too much but I do have some higher melt stuff 188° or something Again that's from Eileen's not that long ago so not sure about the lead content, there's also my o!d plumber's solder, that i also have a pot of flux for, that's called LA CO regular soldering paste, American clearly, I've used that on copper pipe with no prob in the past, tho I get the impression that soldering tin plate is different to copper work?? I'll await the little gas torch then perhaps give it another go before going araldite !

I'd definitely leave it as it is, proper genuine weathering! I've got a wel worn type 50 loco like that which I think really looks the part. As Mr N says, I look forward to seeing your progress with the refurb milk tanker.. where can you get decals for this kind of stuff out of interest?

A nice lot. I think the colas tanker looks great just as it is! I wonder what sort of paint was used originally, its pretty robust and they didn't seem to use a primer, perhaps it was some kind of baked on process??

I'm certainly not ruling out araldite, I've only got some of the rapid version at the mo, so I must obtain a couple of tubes of the real stuff to have in stock.. I will await getting the little gas torch and have an experiment with some scrap then take a view.. it's not going to be a highly 'trafficked' part anyway and will probably just be used for sidings or something, tho I do have about 3 other sets of points that also need bits fixing.

The coil of flux cored I've got was from Woolworths so probably fairly old, 1990s at the latest, i also have a big roll of plumber's solder that I'm fairly sure is lead based, I've used that on copper pipe no prob ...the solder that failed was a bit of 145° melt stuff for 'modelmaking' from Eileen's emp. fairly recent so who knows it's content, likely no lead?.. the liquid flux was from there too.

I got one of these, for £2.49 including postage, at that price you can't go far wrong, I've even got some cig lighter gas somewhere.. More soldering fun to be had (hopefully) when it arrives..

I've got some flux core stuff as you describe, I've only really used it for soldering odd wires to electrical things rather than metal to metal, I'll have a play with some bits of scrap metal and see what works on what.. With araldite of course you don't burn off any paint finish..

Btw I do have some "Barry Stevenson by slaters plasticard" liquid flux that reckons it's 9% phosphoric acid...would the team think that's a suitable flux for tin stuff ? ( the stuff that left the grease was some old fluxite type paste)

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Obviously I'd rather solder as it's the proper way to do it, the prob being this part has odd shapes / crevices and not easy to disassemble in order to clean up first ! Just sleepers would be ok but this is the 'box' with the workings of the points, the operating rod is permanently squashed in place and not much to work with ! The box unit is loose on the rails ( at least I got all the blobs of failed solder off!)

De greasing it seems a bit problematic I've tried meths but still looks greasy where I put flux paste on! I'll decant a bit of petrol from the motor later and try that. Just looking at those mini torches, they're on eBay from about 2 quid so at that price I'll probably grab one anyway, as you say handy for many other things too. I've used araldite (with wood ) years ago and it was ok, again no doubt all down to getting the surfaces clean, which seems the main bugbear with all this, especially with a fiddly shape component.

The blue themed forum as per your link is the one I found and appears to be UK centric, which is good for me!..all my stuff so far is Meccano Hornby so unlikely to stray far from that ! Just out of interest, does Lionel track easily connect with Hornby track.? (I'm talking 2 rail here)

I too have thought about getting a mini blowtorch type thing, that creates a pencil like flame, but not really found anything that seems to be suitable.? Pity you can't just arc weld it!! ..I've done that successfully on the real railway ( wagons tho not track) I'll look at the O gauge forum again too..( is that the one called the tinplate community btw or a different one ? )