recent efforts in review.

[victor miranda]

it is odd the things that should be easy and are difficult

I have been trying to find a good way to get allwheel pickup into the tender trucks of a b-mann Northern.
building lightly spring and stays in place is a trick

I also seek an easy way to reassemble a minitrix dek, more fingers would help
however I can't help but think there is a trick there.

The thing that was surprisingly easy was putting ball bearings
on the wormshaft of a RR 2-8-8-2.
well worth doing if you haul a lot of cars with one.

The real problem is that my favorite soldering iron broke.
It is kinda tough to solder 0402 leds with a 40 watt iron.
so I went hunting another like the one that broke.
it was tip temp controlled and cheap... I wish I had bought more.

weeelp I'll hafta get sump'n.

one day I'll get good at this and I'll  have something to share and not just complain...

[Zox]

The real problem is that my favorite soldering iron broke.
It is kinda tough to solder 0402 leds with a 40 watt iron.
so I went hunting another like the one that broke.
it was tip temp controlled and cheap... I wish I had bought more.

These folks have a wide variety of soldering gear, and pretty good prices on some of it:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/category/Soldering/0000001165

They've got a knob-adjustable temperature controlled soldering station currently on sale for $29.99:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/TENMA-21-11405-/21-11405

Or one with a digital thermostat for $49.99:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/TENMA-21-10115-/21-10115

[victor miranda]

after a lot of hunting I found this:
SE-PN32UL
on amazon.

the picture is exactly what I have...
the reason I like it is the tip.

we shall see what arrives.

I have to add that the middle one is very tempting
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/TENMA-21-11405-/21-11405

thanks for the selection.

victor

[mmagliaro]

I have a nice old ancient Ungar 9000, and I still use it.  I just wish I could buy tips that really fit the handpiece.
Every one I try, even from Allied or other big-name electrical industrial supplies, does not actually fit, and the back
half of it has to be filed to get it in.

[Mark.S+10]

      "I have been trying to find a good way to get all wheel pickup into the tender trucks of a b-mann Northern."

If you solve this problem I'm sure lots of folks would like to see the answer.  I moved the traction tire driver from the #3 position to the #4 spot.  It really improved the pulling ability on my Northern, but ruined the driver power pick up.  Now she stops and stutters her way around the track.  I'm sure tender pickup would eliminate the problem.  I hope you find a solution better that the axle wipers others have offered.  Have fun, Mark.

[sumfred]

Have had the same problem with pickup on my Bachmann GN Northern. Added a long GN Vanderbilt tender (the DCC ready ones) and hard wired it along with a Digitrax sound decoder and it now runs very nice. The whole engine and tender are now somewhat longer than with the short Vanderbilt tender but looks better.
Fred