How do you bond your point blades?

[DCB]

I keep seeing how to cut wires and bond adjacent rails to improve running with Live frog points but never how to get continuity to the point blades.  I'm thinking I need very flexible 1 amp wire?  Where do you solder to?   My problem is I have several ex DCC layout Peco code 100  Live frog points with little or no continuity through the blade pivots and no contact tags 3hich were intended for my garden (battery power) line and I sort of fancy making a BLT as a winter project so  I wondered if there is a good fix as I need to run  0-4-0s over them.  My old 0-6-0s etc are fine over the dead blades, but my K's Metro and my 14XX only have drive wheel pick up.

[Pete the Elaner]

I've relied on the pivot point to provide continuity. It has never given me a problem but a friend of mine has so it is something I am mindful of. With a moving component, my concern is that this would eventually fracture the wire.

[WIMorrison]

Just solder under the blade to the adjacent stock rail, or if it is frog supplied blades then I solder from the frog to the blades

 

[Michael Hodgson]

15 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

Just solder under the blade to the adjacent stock rail, or if it is frog supplied blades then I solder from the frog to the blades

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That's a lot easier if done before fastening it to the baseboard and ballasting!!

[Dagworth]

 

[WIMorrison]

I solder 7/02 to the underside of the blade and take the unsoldered wire through the baseboard and back up to stock rail where it is soldered again. Leaves enough flexibility.

[RobinofLoxley]

It never happened on my old layout where SEEP point motors slammed the tie bar across. That would be the way to break the connection. Having slower acting motors now I don't consider it a risk. If I had to I could take a feed from the dropper either through the baseboard or over it but I would think as close to the pivot as possible would be the place to aim for

[peterm1]

I use Peco live frog points and crossings.  I've used fuse wire connected between the stock rail and point blade as well as setting the blades dead centre and then soldering the pivot point solid. .032" operating wire for the motors and both methods are still going strong. I suppose you could use the latter method with solenoid motors, but you'd need a bit of trial and error.

[Andymsa]

I bond the blades by soldering a piece of 0.7 solid copper wire into the grove on bottom of the blade. The grove is eased a bit not to much and I pre solder both the attachment point on the blade and copper wire. The copper wire is cut to about an inch and has a small L bent at one end about 2 mm long this is soldered into the grove being careful not to leave the soldering iron in place to long as heat will cause issues. Then I add the bond wire to the copper wire and run it back to the stock rails or the wire feeding the stock wires. I usually place the bond about two spaces from the pivot point and is done before the point is laid. Obviously holes have to be drilled before for the bond wire to go through and made large enough for movement to occur without binding the blades moving. 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Andymsa