pushrod soldering questions

Good grief!

Never read such bickering over a seemingly simple subject. Guess not many of you used music wire to make takeoff dollies for U/C speed models?

Don't care what you purists call the process, but I know my ancient

200 Watt American Beauty soldering iron used to "join" pieces of music wire that had been cleaned, then wrapped with copper wire prior to heating the flux-coated wire joint and applying acid core solder sure bonded together and took a heck of a lot of abuse. And I didn't even get a PhD in welding!

BTW, my Dad first got that iron for me from war surplus in 1946 and it's still going strong!

Cheers -- \__________Lyman Slack_________/ \______AMA6430 IMAA1564___/ \____Flying Gators R/C______/ \__Gainesville FL _________/ Visit my Web Site at:

Absolutely a must if you want a to be sure all surfaces will be joined. After tinning , wipe the rod with a damp paper towel and make sure all the rod has been tinned where you want it. Most all what I read seems to say that all surfaces should be clean as possible. Cold solder joints are not always strong, so beware.

Nope, but SOLDERED many a music wire slot car chassis back in the late '60s. A

100/140 Weller gun will apply a LOT of heat. Your 200 watter Shoney's Big Boy will do it to it, too. :) Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

I have soldered some large steel rod landing gear together and I noticed that sanding the spots to be soldered real bright and using a torch and flux did the job. But what made it adhere faster was rubbing the heated solder /flux area on the steel rod with a piece of wood. I think it was spruce or pine. Crazy I know but it worked. Moderate pressure.

Next time try steel wool, or even better, a stainless scouring pad.

The mechanical scrubbing action chases away stuff the flux didn't quite deal with on it's own.

Sorta like the rocket scientist doing hearing research with frogs . . . .

Put a frog on the table, smacked the table with a 2 x 4, frog jumped.

Cut off one of the frog's legs.

Put the frog back on the table, smacked the table with a 2 x 4, frog jumped but the landing was a bit off.

Cut off another leg.

Put the frog back on the table, smacked the table with a 2 x 4, frog jumped, but the landing is pretty ugly.

Cut a third leg off the frog.

Put the frog back on the table, smacked the table with a 2 x 4, frog still managed to jump but both the take-off and landing were truly lousy.

Cut off the frog's last leg.

Put the leg-less frog on the table, smacked the table with a 2 x 4, frog didn't move at all.

Concluded that frogs go deaf when you cut their legs off.

It wasn't the wood, but don't tell anybody. Let 'em think you've found a secret wood-assisted soldering technique. Tell 'em you used lignum vitae . . . they'll go nutz trying to find the stuff. Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

Been gone for a while and I ain't gonna' read 47 replies to solder a clevis!!!

While a Z-Bend on the non-threaded end would be the easiest for a .40 machine, I will give you a rapid recipe for soldering RC non-electric stuff. Pick up some Sta-Brite silver solder at the Hardware store or it is sold under the Great Planes name at the Hobby Shop. Your choice.

Use your regular solder gun. First clean the joint with a touch of fine sandpaper of your choice. Warm up the joint a bit and place a couple drops of the supplied liquid flux on the joint. The flux makes the S-B run very well when it gets hot. If you get the joint hot and use adequate flux for the solder to run and look really silvery it will be well strong enough for any toy airplane joint. Clean the soldered joint with rubbing alcohol and an old tooth brush.

Works fine.

I reckon you have the right idea there Jim - I picked up a couple of those from a junk shop (about $1 each or so) and they are so handy for any of the big jobs for which you wouldn't want to have to buy a 100w electric iron.

BTW for that guy who reckons you cannot solder to steel, just ask any of the old time radio guys (like me) who made their own radio chassis and soldered earth lugs etc to them.

The advice to use a corrosive flux worries me some. While that is OK where you are soldering bits together than can be washed clean, corrosive residue trapped inside the end tubular bit might be a source of trouble after a while - if you do want to use then I suggest you tin the wire and the end fixture - wash them clean - then sweat them together.

David

jim breeyear wrote: