Soldering

Rather than spend lots of money, try Mr Eveleigh's clamping system; see

If the parts are irregular in shape, carve a piece of wood to support the part. Chop the ends of pegs to suit the size you need. You can also cross-drill pegs for a second skewer to act as a targetted prodder. If the parts are very thin, use a packer either above or below to space the clamp from the base (so the bamboo bends). Decide whether the packer would benefit from being a heat sink or not on the situation in hand.

eg: various pictures of clamps in use building some rather nice coach etches, also designed by Mr Eveleigh:

Also, worth considering if the object is U-shaped and needs work on both sides is a side-ways clamp like this:

flat face is 10mm thick MDF, with another layer of MDF below (but smaller in area, so the upper overlaps). The clamp strip is a thin piece of ply. The underframe is folded up, and then clamped into position allowing detail (springs, footboards, etc.) to be added whilst the other side is completely protected. You will need to adjust the dimensions (thickness) for scales other than

2mm.

Additional tools which are very useful are aluminium hairgrips and lots of wooden prodders - cocktail sticks, skewers, lolly sticks, etc...

See signature :-)

- Nigel

In message , Chris Wilson writes

I've got one of these: it broke, i.e. one of the cast spheroidal joints broke away from the rest of its "arm". The thing appears to be cast out of some metal or other, and like most small cheap metal castings, it is not very strong.

...

That's a bunch of great ideas and tips, thanks.

2mm scale? Boys stuff ... :-)

... just wait till you're working with 1:300 or 1:285 micro armour or 1:1200 warships ... I was once criticised for using what was claimed to be the wrong shade of yellow on the facings of some Napoleonic era troops just 5mm high!

I bought a set of 3 different sized 'G' Clamps from my local hardware store. I fitted them with thin sheet rubber pads on the inner jaws and they are fine for holding small components together while soldering or filing to shape.

David.

Chris,

To add to the other suggestions, you can get some light allow hair clips which are excellent for holding things together, or in place. They are made of softish alloy, so they don't take to solder and they can be bent to a required shape quite easily.

Also the spring wooden clothes peg itself is a good clamp (before you break it into bits to make Nigel's recommended holders with the bamboo canes). The springs are a bit strong, so they should be used with care around thin metal if you don't want to mark it. You can hack and file the ends to suit whatever you want to do. Don't get the plastic ones - they melt at the sight of a soldering bolt.

Also, look at getting some soft iron wire - used by florists for flower arranging. This wire bends and stays bent and is very useful for holding larger irregularly shaped items together while soldering.

Another suggestion is to look at getting an RSU - Resistance Soldering Unit. Soldering small detail parts is a lot easier using this equipment since you hold the parts together in place with the point of the tool, then apply the power to heat the joint, then cut the power while still holding the part in place until the solder solidifies. They can be a bit costly, but if you've got about £100 to spare, they can be worth the expense.

Jim.

I disagree. Better to purchase a good temperature controlled iron for most work (eg. Antex mid-range models).

I have an RSU, and it gets used very rarely. I regard it as an expensive luxury which promises more than it really delivers, in common with lathes, milling machines, etc..

- Nigel

Thanks everyone, that was going to be a follow-up question, I've got a 25W iron with a clapped out bit and an old 15W iron from Tandy (as was) that has to take a bit of a run up before it gets hot. OK, so I can replace the bit of the 25W iron and truth be told it's OK for the time being but I was thinking of treating myself to a new iron as my next big "tool purchase".

Can you elaborate more on why you think RSUs aren't that good? From what I've read various users tend to look at them as being the bee's knees.

Cheers,

Chris

Suggest you get an Antex 25W conventional iron as an interim measure - less than 20 pounds. They are a lot better than many other irons. And get a selection of bit shapes - smaller ones are very useful for most jobs. I prefer the 18W, but as I'm doing 2mm scale, the smaller size is appropriate.

This is my own experience, and I know lots of others like them.

I own most forms of soldering; 3 small conventional irons (12,18,25W), one

100W iron, two gas-powered, a RSU (from London Road Models, but typical of those on sale). The only one I've not got is temperature controlled, though I have used the swish electronics one in the technician's lab at work. I'll be purchasing a temperature controlled one at some point, probably when I need more than 18W of power as my old 25W iron is not very good.

I've tried using the RSU to assemble various 2mm items, and a 4mm Comet coach as specific projects - gone through the project building everything with the RSU unless I got stuck.

I found the RSU probes to be somewhat of a problem - they are quite fat (even the extra one with the extra-flexible leads). The probes also get quite hot in use, so you need to back-off and do something else whilst things cool down. Compared to a soldering iron, they are quite clumsy to hold.

Judging the correct current can be difficult, though you learn which combination works for which piece of work. Needing to have a good earth path for everything can be a problem. I routinely use it ontop of a sheet of aluminium which is earthed to the RSU return lead. The earth block can be a heat sink which doesn't help the job. This depends on what you are doing.

The claimed "it only delivers heat when you want it" is no more true than for a conventional iron.

For most work, I find it to be slower and a bit harder than a conventional iron. I don't find it easy to "push" a solder puddle around with an RSU, which is a key benefit of a conventional iron.

Where the RSU scores is fitting some types of detail. eg. the sand boxes on the footplate of my DY1 :

(it looks better now its got glazing, numbers, BR totem, etc). Those are lumps of brass round, with an angled filed on them. The RSU was ideal to zap them onto the footplate. The tip of the probe can hold the work in place, then the current applied, joint form, then remove the current. That said, I fitted the two on a second body with a conventional iron.

The RSU is good for some sheet-work - notably the underframe of the Comet coach, though the claims for their use when fixing large over-lays didn't work out for me - its still as easy to get a buckle or a bubble on the sheet.

I built quite complex items, with multiple over-lays, such as a rake of GE four wheelers, with only the Antex 18W:

Overall, if I want to build something, I reach for the 18W Antex. Only if that doesn't do the job do I reach for another soldering tool. The other soldering tools (bigger, gas or RSU) get used in about equal measures for the 10% of jobs where the Antex doesn't do the job.

Having used a temperature controlled iron, I can see the value. They have a much better ability to store heat and deliver it when you need it without the temperature of the iron plummeting when placed on the job, and because the temperature is controlled, they make using multi-temperature solder a bit more sense than just selecting the solder with the appropriate gap/flow properties (eg. do some work with 220+ solder, then drop to 180, etc.). I'm inclined to purchase an Antex 660TC system, with the addition of the smaller 25W iron - probably about the same price as a RSU.

- Nigel

Nigel,

I got an RSU two or three years ago and I might term it an expensive luxury since I had managed to work without it for forty years :-) But it sits on my bench alongside my Weller Temperature controlled iron, my ancient heavyweight Solon and my small blowtorch, and it gets used regularly from choice, not because I feel I have to because it cost me £90. :-) It works well for detail soldering, especially for the 'hold it down, apply heat, hold it till set' facility, and it is also the fastest source of heat if it is suitable for the job. There are jobs where it is not the best choice, and then you use whichever of the other tools you find best. I wouldn't be without one now. I could survive without one, but it makes my life easier in a lot of instances and that makes its cost worthwhile.

I also must take you to task on classing lathes and milling machines as expensive luxuries. It surely depends on how you want to do your modelling. I model in 7mm and I prefer to scratchbuild, using a lathe and, lately, a milling machine as well. Now if I didn't want to scratchbuild, but buy kits to make my models, then I could find myself spending the same amount of money on one loco kit as I would on a lathe. So in 7mm, what's the expensive luxury - scratchbuilding using machine tools, or buying kits which could quite easily total a much greater cost? I also model in S scale, and with a good lathe I make my own wheels which, in a lot of cases, you have to in S. Without the lathe, I couldn't achieve that.

I'm also investigating making a set of 16 boxpok drivers in 7mm for another modeller - there are no commercial items available. They can only be made by using a lathe and a milling machine - or can you suggest an alternative cheaper and less luxurious way of manufacturing them :-)

I bought my present lathe well over thirty years ago so the cost should be amortised over that period, and I suspect that it would be less than the cost of a pint of beer a day over that period - for me that's not too expensive a luxury.

Jim

Jim

Do you find "the RSU probes to be somewhat of a problem - they are quite fat (even the extra one with the extra-flexible leads). The probes also get quite hot in use, so you need to back-off and do something else whilst things cool down. Compared to a soldering iron, they are quite clumsy to hold." ?

Jim Guthrie wrote:

Dick,

With the RSU unit I've got - no :-) It's got a wooden handle to the holder which insulates the hand from the heat of the tip, so there's no discomfort under use. The flexible leads are fine and don't affect the work, especially if using a metal plate as the return baseplate.

And the probes are as fine as I want to make them. I normally sharpen mine with a cheap pencil sharpener, but if I need them longer and thinner, I sharpen them by hand with a knife, just as I would a pencil. I don't find the tips any more cumbersome to use than the selection of tips I have for my Weller Temperature Controlled iron.

PS.

I think I should add, for other readers, that the RSU I'm using is manufactured by Dick Ganderton :-) But it does work very well and I mean what I say above.

And no money has exchanged hands between Dick and I - except for the money I paid him for the unit :-)

Jim.

I think you should have added a commercial interest disclaimer to your posting.

I started my posting with "This is my own experience, and I know lots of others like them."

I'm sure Jim loves his system.

- Nigel

I think other tools would be a better first choice for most people.

There is also a tendency I've observed to purchase tools in the hope that it will make better models. It doesn't. Its application of tools to a job with skill which produces a better model, and practising is what improves skill. That said, there is a point where inappropriate and poor quality tools make the job down-right difficult to impossible.

Of course it depends what you want to make and the individual relative priority between using commercially available parts and making ones own parts. I've seen people spend £1000+ on a lathe with tooling and wonder why it doesn't instantly improve their models. Ownership of a lathe won't make good models. Knowing how and when to use it might.

- Nigel

I find there are a small number of tasks for which it is invaluable - for example, attaching strapping to a brass coach kit. But otherwise it is out with the soldering iron, in my case a variable temperature Antex, which I highly recommend.

Possibly one's choice of solder may influence the choice. Those who use solder paint may prefer an RSU, but I'm a solder and paste flux merchant. Even using the RSU, I tin the strapping then use a paste flux.

John