Dropper wire soldering/routing

[michaelp]

I am about to start and solder the dropper wires to my track but I am unsure of the best way to do this.

Do I solder the wires to the bottom of the rails and how are the droppers routed through the baseboards, do I drill a hole under each rail in the baseboard or just one central hole, also, how long can I safely leave my Antex soldering iron switched on?

 

I am new to DCC and just want to get it right first time.....hopefully!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Michael

[Ray H]

I tried drilling holes directly under the rails and found that the track invariably never wanted to go back down in exactly the same place as before so I reverted to drilling small holes adjacent to the outside of the rails.

 

Of late I've also taken off more of the sleeving, tinned the last few mm of the exposed wire and then bent the tinned end at 90° and soldered it to the web of the rail. The remaining length of the exposed wire is enough that the sleeving isn't exposed above the baseboard surface and by the time the track is ballasted and the rails painted the wire is almost invisible.

 

I wouldn't leave your soldering iron on longer than necessary - i.e. turn it off when you go to lunch and overnight, but otherwise it should be quite capable of being left on for several hours.

[michaelp]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for the quick reply, your way sounds ideal I will try that, thanks also for the soldering iron advice.

 

Michael

[RFS]

I treat my soldering iron in the same way as my DCC controller: I never leave either switched on when I'm not in the room.  I once went on holiday for a week, and when I went into the railway room I found the iron had been on all the time I was away.  The consequences could have been dire ....

[Miss Prism]

I solder droppers to the underside of the rail, before the track is laid. The droppers pass through oversize holes drilled through the trackbed on the rail axis.

[tetsudofan]

Hi Michael,

 

If you don't like the idea of soldering there is an alternative - use the pre-soldered Power Feed Joiners from Peco together with the DCC Power Bus Kit sold by Express Models.

 

Have taken a quick picture of what it looks like under the baseboard:

 

 

For ages I was putting off fitting and soldering the dropper wires but combining the Peco and Express Models products the job was a real doddle. I probably went overboard and installed droppers between each track length but, hey ho, it became enjoyable and not a feared task.

 

Keith

 

 

[roundhouse]

I prefer soldering to the side of the rail. It is far easier to repair the joint if it fails at some future point as :

 

1) you can find it

2) you can get to it with a soldering iron

 

Its rare for me to have a failure but with most of the layouts doing many shows and with some layouts over 20 years old this will happen once in a while.

 

Yes it can sometimes be seen but with a bit of paint its often fairly well hidden. If you plan ahead you can often reduce the number of wires required aswell.

Edited May 13, 2014 by roundhouse

[Kenton]

There are only 2 reasons for failure of a soldered join

1. The join was not a good one (dry join) in the first place (caused by movement or dirt when soldering)

2. physically pulling the wire after the join has been made (unsecured wire loom under the board)

 

for me it is one dropper for each rail of every length of track. The principle of overkill/redundancy. Oh and my soldering iron stays on all day every day while I am in the house. But that is only because it is in use. I don't see any reason for you doing that unless you are adding many 100's of droppers during the session. It is hot and a potential fire risk (not to mention burn risk to any children) so switch it off when you are not present.

[ZiderHead]

 how long can I safely leave my Antex soldering iron switched on?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmIOrCdh9pI

 

[Ian Abel]

I solder to the underside of the rails. When positioning the flex-track to determine length etc., or for points to determine where to drill for switch motors, I also then use a pin to mark the location of the dropper holes under the track, then drill all dropper holes at one time for the sections I'm laying.

Droppers are 90degree L-bend stranded wire about 2mm long on the section soldered to the track, tinned then soldered to tinned underside of track - easily slipped into place through the pre-drilled holes.

 

For the soldering iron try this - http://www.allendale-stores.co.uk/aoyue-60w-digital-soldering-station-9378.html

 

THis is a UK link for the one I have. Really nice as it has a sleep timer, shuts off when not in use. Also a vibration sensor so soon as you pick it up it starts to re-heat, and only takes about 15 seconds to come up to temp. for soldering droppers. I usually just jog the iron in its holder while I'm stripping the droppers and cleaning the rail, then it's ready when I am...

[michaelp]

Thank you very much to everyone for taking the time to reply to my post and for giving me loads of advice, ideas and information.

 

Regards to all

 

Michael

[shibushe]

Adding my penny worth. i drill a small hole next to the rail on the out side.

Tin the wire, Tin the rail. thread the wire through the hole, bend the wire over a bit.

If you can reach under with one hand this helps holding the wire to be soldered in place.

A touch of flux will solder quicker, you dont want the plastic sleeper to melt.

Do make sure your wire is long enough to reach the power bus.

I am not a great believer in a dropper every track length, infact my longest runs have only two per track every 5 ft. 

Edited May 14, 2014 by shibushe

[melmerby]

A touch of flux will solder quicker, you dont want the plastic sleeper to melt.

Use multicore solder and yes use lead solder, it's makes better joints than the lead free junk.

Ignore all the "Banned by EU" rubbish  - it isn't.

As long as you don't breath in the fumes and don't spend 25 hours a day soldering the health hazard is minimal.

 

Keith

[Krazykrisbell]

I melted so many sleepers trying to get lead free solder to actually run!!!! Gave up in the end , too much devastation caused 

Why do they even sell this lead free rubbish  , it should come with a warning 

[ISW]

On 02/02/2022 at 16:28, Krazykrisbell said:

I melted so many sleepers trying to get lead free solder to actually run!!!! Gave up in the end , too much devastation caused 

Why do they even sell this lead free rubbish  , it should come with a warning 

Lead free solder needs a much higher temperature. I 'normally' use my iron set at 30w, but for lead-free I need it set to 50w. Also, you'll need to apply some flux to the underside of the rail to get a good connection.

 

Having said all that, I hate lead-free solder and I now only use the 'full fat' resin filled leaded version myself.

 

Ian