pushrod soldering questions

Nonsense.

Check out "Models On The Bench" on my web site (only one model under construction at the moment - a 1/3 scale L-4).

Peruse the photo album "Functional L-4 Landing Gear".

Nota bene that except for the small brass bearing tubes where various fixing and pivot bolts go, the landing gear is all _steel_ and that various sub-assemblies are either silver soldered or are SOFT SOLDERED.

I used J.W. Harris 15% Safety-Silv, J.W. Harris solid wire _lead solder_, and a MAPP torch.

Soft solder will most assuredly "stick" to bare steel, but not at soldering iron temperatures. Nowhere near enough heat.

Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

A fine tool.

Had one in constant use at work for almost a decade now, and it's just as tight as the day I got it.

'nother trick where the Klein comes in handy . . . making up cables.

Slide the wire through a high temperature electrical butt-splice connector (the thick-walled variety), then through the eye-bolt or whatever, and loop it back through the butt-splice twice.

Crimp once, solder, and bump it on the wire wheel a couple of times. Makes a pretty joint that can only be cut apart.

Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

If you'd care to see a .jpg of a bright, _cracked_ solder joint, I can post one in the binaries group.

"cold" solder joints aren't the only solder joints that fail.

Ask NASA what they learned about circuit board construction, vis a vis snipping the excess leads off components after soldering versus snipping the leads to the proper length _before_ soldering.

Mechanical shock, temperature extremes, and rapid temperature fluctuations can crack ordinary 70/30 and 90/10 solder. Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

A 2-speed Weller 8200 can.

Seems pretty fast, to me.

If that's not enough heat fast enough, one can always step up to a D550 or a D650.

You can _silver solder_ with those guns, never mind make good joints with 70/30 or 90/10.

Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

Steel is easy to solder if you use the correct materials and techniques. Most of those have been written about here already.

Nasa has changed their recommendations for trimming leads only in regards to the type of cutter. They used to only specify cutters that do not use shearing actions. Now they recognize both types.

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions. All of my questions have been answered,

I will check my local hobby shop for the STA-BRIGHT solder tonight, if they don't have it in stock I will use acid core. I will try the baking soda bath to neutralize the remaining acids.

I expecially want to thank Bill Fulmer for his comment about the electromagnetic fields generated by soldering guns. My building area is this desk, the one my computer sits on. I think I will do the soldering in the garage somewhere.

Thank you all Ken Barnes

Crap. Bare metal is just what you need to make a good solder joint. Just what do you think a 2-56 rod is made of? Ah...STEEL! What do you think electrical wire is made of when it's not copper or aluminum? Ah...STEEL! When you solder a washer or nut to a metal bracket for your strut attachment, what do you think they are made of? Ah...STEEL! Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

The change I was talking about occurred in the mid-60s, when all they had were hand-built discrete component boards and _lots_ of wire wrap posts.

They found that a significant number of board failures were installed on the building bench (the same way a lot of models have crashes installed on the bench) because the mechanical shock of trimming the leads after soldering was cracking solder joints.

Hence the requirement to trim the components' leads before soldering.

Circa '66, or so. Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

That and the 'guns' put in too much heat and caused tolerances of some electronics change just enough to make guidance packages unreliable.

My buddy put mine down in the bottom of his inflatable boat... in a puddle of salt water! I didn't notice and he put them back in my tool belt.

The next morning, they were bright red and would not MOVE.

I put two drops of Mobil-1 5w-30 on the pivot, and 10 minutes later they were as good as new (movement wise, I still had to clean the rust).

--- Rich

LOL! I've known more than one inexperienced guitar tech who has ruined $150 pickups by using a gun to solder them into the guitar's wiring. Guns make GREAT degaussing coils :)

--- Rich

Before making this comment, I looked up the Weller 8200. The key to making a good solder joint is having a "good heat reservoir" to heat the work. Granted, the 8200 has the triangular chunk at the tip, but it still has that long loop to dissapate heat.

An analogy is - heat a cup of water rapidly to boiling and hope it stores enough heat to cook the egg. I gaurantee that my slower heated to boiling quart of water will come much closer to cooking that egg.

David

It is all NICKLE PLATED STEEL !

David

The pushrod I been using aren't nickel plated and they soldered just fine.

Do you mean NICKEL plated steel?

Leave it out in the rain and see how plated it is.

I've never had any problems getting solder to stick, after lightly roughening the area with fine sandpaper or steel wool. 60/40 rosin core electrical solder is what I use.

Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

Your analogy is technobabble nonsense.

Your mathematical acumen is a bit lacking, as well.

One does not heat metal to be soldered until it reaches a specific temperature, remove the heat, and apply the solder. Won't work.

One heats metal to be soldered until it reaches a specific temperature (liquidus of 375 F for 60/40 tin-lead solder)) and then one applies the filler _while maintaining the application of heat_ until the filler flows and the joint is filled.

Do yourself a favor. See the soldering/brazing chart at

If three different people tell you that you've got it wrong, chances are better than even at least one of 'em might be right.

Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

More metallurgical nonsense.

Nickel plated steel is far too expensive for hobby uses. Even stainless is less expensive.

If you think you cannot solder steel, you're gonna have a real hissy fit when you find out folks been soldering _aluminum_ for a couple of decades now. Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

I use regular threaded on the end rods made from steel, not the rolled thread nickel plated rods you buy at the hobby shop.