The almost done railroad

Maybe a humorous cautionary tale of over-ambition in model railroading. Seems SWMBO got fed up with me missing church on Sunday a few times to spend the whole day soldering feeder wires. I figure I was about 4 weeks away from completing the conversion to DCC on my apartment layout when I got a nasty surprise announcement for Christmas: she had made an offer on a condo and we would be moving out. Taking the shock rather mildly I let my questions about space for the railroad sit for now. My tight lip paid off as a few weeks later, we find out the condo is a stinker and have backed out of the deal - I'm so glad I didn't make things worse by moaning about my hobby. So just a word to the wise, don't lose hope when all seems lost. Now to finish that last few days of soldering and wiring.

Has anyone else found it difficult to find replacement 5mm plain round tips (for 40W wand)? My old tip has become all discolored and rough, but the wand is fine.

Tips are available from a number of electronis suppliers. The cheap old style irons can be filed clean for a fairly long way without any problems. All they are is a piece of copper wire with a thread on one end. For more advanced irons, tips are avilable in electronics supplies in the tool section. You have to know the design of thee iron to get the right series. I've been using Weller's TCP line for 40 years and find that iron to be an excellent iron for heat supply without overheating the work and I've had to replace only a few tips despite running the iron for months at a time at work and at home. This system has iron coated tips and you don't file them but rather wipe them with a wet sponge to clean them.

-- Bob May

rmay at nethere.com http: slash /nav.to slash bobmay http: slash /bobmay dot astronomy.net