hayfield Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 Please what is a good wattage for a soldering iron when building 7 mm copperclad track please. Any recommendations please Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatB Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 Looking at the sizes of metal to be joined I'd look for ~80W. You could probably get away with a fair bit less but I like to have a good reserve of capacity in any tool. Weller do a decent 80W iron for not too much money. It has the advantage that the bit is 3/8" OD so it's easy to file up custom tips from suitably sized copper rod. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 You might find it easier to try tinning the bottom of the rails. I got much better results this way, but these days I prefer to spike the rail directly to the sleepers - only works for flatbottom rail though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
66C Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 Hi John I have successfully soldered code 200 rail with a 25 watt soldering iron and a 3mm chisel bit. The important thing is to be able to get enough heat into the job - the size of the bit becomes important just as much as the wattage of the iron. Be careful, however, not to overheat the copperclad as it may then delaminate and have to be scrapped. The choice of solder is another factor. Use good old tin/lead solder with cored flux - it is readily available retail from the likes of Wilkinsons and from electrical suppliers such as Rapid and CPC. Regards. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymw Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 You may find additional flux is useful - tin the rail, flux the pcb, (or vice-versa), apply iron. Easy to apply flux similar to this http://cpc.farnell.com/qualitek/rework-wand-rma/rework-pen-rma/dp/SD01930 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted April 13, 2015 Author Share Posted April 13, 2015 Thanks bill and Ray, I do have a 25 watt iron with a 5 mm chisel bit. I use old fashioned lead solder with plenty of liquid flux. I do take on board the size of tips Need a second iron, so looking perhaps for something a bit stronger, and use a higher melting point solder for some other kit building jobs (Hane an 0 gauge Slaters loco to build) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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