Soldering wires to Bachmann split-chassis metal

"Ian J." wrote

The chassis components are cast, and consequently will almost certainly be some form of alloy - possibly mazak. I doubt whether you can solder to it.

John.

On 07/08/2006 19:13, John Turner said,

It is theoretically possible to solder to Mazak, but I've never tried it

- the nearest I got was soldering aluminium.

You need some of the Carr's products, namely Grey Label flux and I think the Zinc rich solder - see

However, as to why you should want to do this, or whether or not you should, that's a different issue!

So the answer is either trap the wire at some screw point already present on the chassis, or drill a tiny hole and screw a solder tag to the block of mazak.

- Nigel

"Paul Boyd" wrote

Did some experiments some years ago using some pretty obnoxious fluxes and nothing seemed to work, even though we were following some published suggestions.

John.

Ah. That's what'll be stopping the soldering working then... I'll need to get some tags, and some screws to suit. Any suggestions as to screw type/size? Also where to get the tap/die for such small screws?

Ian J.

I've soldered DCC wires to a Bachy 03 split chassis. First I scratched off some of the black stuff to expose metal underneath then heated up exposed spot with iron then quickly applied solder (normal stuff c/w flux) and wire. If you don't pull it I find it's OK. Might take a couple of attemps though.

HTH

...attempts...

"Dave Potter" wrote

That's not soldering in the literal sense, and is probably nothing more than the wire being held in place by the molten flux.

John.

Thanks for that. I've used Squires for stuff before, so I have one of their

Ian J.

Sounds a bit OTT to me. What's wrong with a small self-tapping screw?

Years ago when using Zero1, I had some small self tapping screws (I think they were from Halfords) which would screw securely into a pilot hole in the chassis block without needing to tap it.

Another possibility is to drill a hole across a corner of the block, file and clean a slight groove across the top, thread the wire that has already been tinned with solder through the hole, twist the end tightly together and apply flux, solder and a hot iron.

Alan

What about conductive epoxy? Rather expensive unless you are doing many locos, though.

MBQ

John, What is wrong with drilling and tapping a 10ba thread with a countersunk head and then using a small 10ba solder tag. This way there is very little heat applied to the casting and a good electrical contact is made. Okay a bit fiddly but would work. Regards Chris Warcup

"Chris" wrote

Have you ever tried tapping a thread in mazak? ;-)

John.