Tehachapi, BC

[basementcalling]

Wait, Gary Henshaw, professor out of this world , has unsoldered joints under a layout with ballast placed piece by piece?

That's somehow reassuring.

[ednadolski]

What about one of those mini butane torches?  A few light, quick passes ought to do the trick, without damaging any of the insulation.

https://www.micromark.com/7-in-1-Micro-Torch-Kit

(Caveat: I've never used one of these myself for soldering, so this is just a suggestion.)

Ed

[jereising]

A pencil like this:



will do nicely.  Mine is similar but a lot older and blue.  I just crank up the heat and hold it on the joint long enough to produce the desired results.  And yes, my busses are AWG12 also.  I've never had a failure in 11 years.

Sorry to gang up on ya, Gary, but this is one thing you NEED to do.

A veteran of many Heathkits who learned to solder correctly thanks to them.

[CRL]

Keeping the tip very wet with solder and using flux goes a long way towards getting a solid joint.

[peteski]

Keeping the tip very wet with solder and using flux goes a long way towards getting a solid joint.

Yes, that is great advice.
As others had mentioned, any pencil-type soldering iron with a large chisel tip will work way better than s soldering gun. For heavy wire that you have a 60W or higher power would be good idea.  Temperature control would also be nice, but if the main job will be just to solder track feeders to the DCC bus, a cheaper iron without temperature control will work.  Then a good iron stand comes in very handy - it will keep the hot iron safe when not in your hand, and it has a wet sponge for *ALWAYS* keeping the tip clean.

For a good solder joint, place some flux over the exposed wire, clean the tip, apply some solder to one of the chisel tip faces, then touch the tip (with the solder on it) to touch the wire, that will very quickly heat the wire and the solder will wick into the strands. The flux and liquid solder on the tip allow for faster heat transfer to the wire being soldered.  Flux also helps in cleaning and wetting the metal being soldered

While that is taking place, take more solder and touch it to the top of the wire, which is now hot enough to melt that solder, and the added solder will wick into the wire giving you a nice complete solder joint.     Once you are happy with the way the joint looks, let it cool down making sure that nothing moves while the solder cools down and solidifies.   Best to use lead-based 60/40 or 63/47 electronic solder for its eutectic property.

As you have heard Gary: Better modeling through peer pressure. ^TM 

[DKS]

Speaking from experience, the above three posts explain all you need to know.

I will add, however, that if you're going to spend money on a new soldering iron, get a decent temperature-controlled rig (there are many brands from which to choose--I use XY-tronic), and three tips: a tiny pencil-tip (for soldering leads to SMD LEDs, circuit board work, etc.), a medium-sized chisel-tip (for general model soldering, like brass kit assembly, etc.), and the biggest tip you can get (for heavy-duty work, such as DCC bus line stuff). Even if you don't think you'd be doing any of the other stuff, you never know, and better to be prepared for any task.

Other topics include things like good flux--cue a post from @robert3985

Ah, but I dally on...

 

[nuno81291]

Sorry to jump in here but I have a 25 watt iron, doesn’t do great with the 12 gauge bus I run either, not once in nearly 10 years however did I experience a loss in continuity with any of the thousands of feeders on 8+ layouts. Is it an excuse for ‘poor’ craftsmanship? If it works it works, and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. My wiring may not be as neat as many on this board but it has been bullet proof. But by all means fix a problem you don’t have 

[GaryHinshaw]

Umm, no offence, but I think y'all are over-reacting a bit to one Sasquatch-quality photo of one solder joint that looks a bit blobby.  It is in fact quite solid and experiences negligible thermal cycling, so it presents almost no risk, and is pretty easy to fix if it does fail.  (Dirty track is a much bigger reliability concern, fwiw.)

I have a nice temp-controlled digital station for all my smaller gauge work and I'm very confident in the hundreds of joints I've done with that iron.  (And I think I have a good handle on flux and tip tinning.)  But I'll happily look into a higher wattage pencil-type iron before I finish off the 12 ga. connections if it will work better than the Weller gun.  Anything to make a tedious task easier.  So thanks for that. 

And just in case anyone had the wrong idea: I fully intend to solder the rest of the joints (even though I've had zero issues with the joints that have so far just been wrapped & crimped).  It just hasn't been a priority compared to getting things up & running to see if they work from the standpoint of operations.

added - well said nuno. 

[DKS]

Sorry to jump in here but I have a 25 watt iron, doesn’t do great with the 12 gauge bus I run either, not once in nearly 10 years however did I experience a loss in continuity with any of the thousands of feeders on 8+ layouts. Is it an excuse for ‘poor’ craftsmanship? If it works it works, and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. My wiring may not be as neat as many on this board but it has been bullet proof. But by all means fix a problem you don’t have 

It may not be a problem on the surface, but with the right tools, you can do a better job, and be ready for other tasks, some of which you may not expect...

[DKS]

Umm, no offence, but I think y'all are over-reacting a bit to one Sasquatch-quality photo of one solder joint that looks a bit blobby.  It is in fact quite solid and experiences negligible thermal cycling, so it presents almost no risk, and is pretty easy to fix if it does fail.  (Dirty track is a much bigger reliability concern, fwiw.)

I have a nice temp-controlled digital station for all my smaller gauge work and I'm very confident in the hundreds of joints I've done with that iron.  (And I think I have a good handle on flux and tip tinning.)  But I'll happily look into a higher wattage pencil-type iron before I finish off the 12 ga. connections if it will work better than the Weller gun.  Anything to make a tedious task easier.  So thanks for that. 

And just in case anyone had the wrong idea: I fully intend to solder the rest of the joints (even though I've had zero issues with the joints that have so far just been wrapped & crimped).  It just hasn't been a priority compared to getting things up & running to see if they work from the standpoint of operations.

added - well said nuno. 

Oh, well, then... tempest in a teapot, being agitated by folks unaware of the facts. Ignore us and carry on!

[GaryHinshaw]

and the biggest tip you can get (for heavy-duty work, such as DCC bus line stuff).

Perhaps I'll just try to get a fat tip for my existing station.  Thx.

Other topics include things like good flux--cue a post from @robert3985

Please, no.  I know all about SuperSafe.

[peteski]

This was an interesting ideas exchange (for which I'm responsible).

I find it quite amusing that a world renowned astrophysicist, whose IQ is probably way higher than anyone here, and who wouldn't think of doing just "good enough" job when it comes to research about the Universe, doesn't mind cold solder solder joints on his toy train layout.   

[James Costello]

Umm, no offence, but I think y'all are over-reacting a bit to one Sasquatch-quality photo of one solder joint that looks a bit blobby.  It is in fact quite solid and experiences negligible thermal cycling, so it presents almost no risk, and is pretty easy to fix if it does fail.  (Dirty track is a much bigger reliability concern, fwiw.)

I'm still shaking my head over it a day later.... 

[Point353]

I find it quite amusing that a world renown astrophysicist, whose IQ is probably way higher than anyone here, and who wouldn't think of doing just "good enough" job when it comes to research about the Universe, doesn't mind cold solder solder joints on his toy train layout.   

Consider the possibility that he did it on purpose just to jump start your efforts to reach 30,000 posts.
(And did you mean to say world renowned astrophysicist?)

[Steveruger45]

Consider the possibility that he did it on purpose just to to jump start your efforts to reach 30,000 posts.
(And did you mean to say world renowned astrophysicist?)

Ah, an Astro-physicist.   maybe wanting to test for a Big Bang perhaps