Feeder Wires for Peco Code 55

[robert3985]

I second the comment that Brian made.

I flux both, tin both, then a quick touch with the iron makes it all good.

One important thing to keep in mind,,, ALWAYS keep the iron clean,, dirty tip will NOT transfer heat quickly.

I use a liquid water soluble flux. I use it for my track work and electronics.

https://www.hnflux.com/page2.html

See ya,
Y-It

+1

To be more specific, Superior #30 Supersafe Flux is the BEST flux I have found (after trying many others) for model work.  Using it will make you an expert solderer as long as you use the right heat, and both clean & buff the metal you're soldering. 

On my layout, which I re-wired to DCC standards, I neither cleaned nor buffed the underside of my rails on track that was already laid, painted & ballasted, and with my resistance solderer tweezers, bent and tinned feeder tips and Supersafe #30 gel flux, I haven't had a single feeder (out of literally hundreds) fail in seven years.  Additionally, I did not rinse the solder joints, and I also haven't had any acid problems whatsoever either. 

Superior #30 Supersafe Flux....HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[peteski]

Superior #30 Supersafe Flux....HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Bob, after seeing your repeated high-praises of this stuff, couple of years ago I bought a bottle (in gel form). I used it maybe half a dozen times and the still-full bottle of the now-liqud gel is still sitting on my workbench collecting dust.

Oh, there was nothing wrong with it - it worked just fine.  The problem was the cleanup. I'm used to using rosin-based fluxes, and I use alcohol or sometimes even acetone for cleanup.  But your flux needs water-cleanup.  While that is environmenty safe, etc., etc., to me water was too wet, too messy, and I had to wait too long for the water to evaporate. Alcohol is much quicker. So, I went back to my old fluxes.  But I'm also still using those (now considered nasty and dangerous) organic solvent based paints. Call me old-school... 

[robert3985]

Bob, after seeing your repeated high-praises of this stuff, couple of years ago I bought a bottle (in gel form). I used it maybe half a dozen times and the still-full bottle of the now-liqud gel is still sitting on my workbench collecting dust.

Oh, there was nothing wrong with it - it worked just fine.  The problem was the cleanup. I'm used to using rosin-based fluxes, and I use alcohol or sometimes even acetone for cleanup.  But your flux needs water-cleanup.  While that is environmenty safe, etc., etc., to me water was too wet, too messy, and I had to wait too long for the water to evaporate. Alcohol is much quicker. So, I went back to my old fluxes.  But I'm also still using those (now considered nasty and dangerous) organic solvent based paints. Call me old-school... 

Peter,

I bought my first Supersafe Flux over 30 years ago when I was just beginning to learn how to build my own turnouts, so I guess it's also "old school".  I'd used all that other stuff, including several rosin-based fluxes, and found that "Plumber's Honey" worked GREAT!  However after rinsing and scrubbing my soldered up turnouts in hot water, and installing them on my Ntrak modules, after about six months, they started self-destructing, even the ballast around them was being eaten up!  I figure that the highly acid plumber's stuff soaked into the PCB ties and simple rinsing was never going to get it out.

At one of the many shows I attended about the same time as my turnouts were turning to white powder, I saw a fellow making N-scale catenary, so I struck up a conversation with him about my flux problems.  He immediately showed me what he used, and sold me a bottle of Superior Supersafe #30 Gel Flux, with a couple of applicators.  He said that he never rinsed his solder joints, so...I cut out all of my disintegrating C70 and C55 turnouts on my two 6' Ntrak modules and reconstructed them in-place.  I didn't rinse them either, and in the next 12 years, I did not have any solder joint degeneration problems with them whatsoever.

The reason I recommend the stuff so highly is that for my brass to brass, brass to NS, copper to copper, brass to copper, NS to copper solder joints....the stuff makes it nearly 100% that I'm gonna get an excellent solder joint, which I know won't corrode...even without rinsing.

On my brass scratchbuidling projects, the reason I wash them is to remove any oils, in preparation for the next round of soldering, or to get ready for paint...NOT to neutralize my Supersafe solder joints....which self-neutralize through the heating process, but the washing/rinsing also gets rid of any flux residue that may be present.

However, on electronic projects, I use rosin-core fine lead solder...because it works, and because I don't want any tin-whiskers forming and shorting things.

But, for turnouts, brass/NS/copper scratchbuilding and feeder to rail applications, Supersafe is what I use and recommend...for several decades now.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[peteski]

Bob,
I have never used any acidic fluxes on any of my electric or electronic projects, so I never got burned on the residue becoming conductive or corrosive.  But I do use Tix flux (acidic zinc chloride) when on some of my metal model kits which are not electrified when something more potent than resin flux is needed.  There is nothing wrong with the Supersafe flux - it is just not for me. I did try it and I still have it if I decide to give it another go.

[OldEastRR]

And everybody is soldering wire to the underside of the rail, right? A fine-tip soldering iron used quickly will get the job done w/o melting ties. I just scrape/sand the rail bottom and solder on the wire. You're supposed to rinse off the soldered joint afterward? Jeez, I never knew that. But no soldered joints or splices have ever deteriorated on any of my layouts going back decades.

[peteski]

Jeez, I never knew that. But no soldered joints or splices have ever deteriorated on any of my layouts going back decades.

Maybe you don't need to.  What type of flux are you using (or what flux core is in the solder you're using)?  Rosin or acid?  The 2 posts above yours explain things.

[OldEastRR]

Have no idea what kind of flux I have, it's in little tube that was with my dad's soldering iron when I got it. Most of the lettering has been worn off (it's at least 30 years old). Came in a canister of rosin-core solder that's long gone. Also have a can of Nokorode, but I never use it.  One thing about N scale: you can buy a spool of solder and a little tube of flux and it lasts forever because each application uses so little material.