Model Railroading > resistance soldering questions

i had somebody highly recommend resistance soldering for soldering n-scale track.  i know resistance soldering units are expensive BUT has anybody here used them to solder model railroad track?

thanks for any info/input............

66

I soldered over 1000 feeders to code 83 and 100 track with my American Beauty resistance set.
I used the tweezer hand piece. After some practice it was easy and no melting plastic ties.

tom

globalethanol Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I soldered over 1000 feeders to code 83 and 100
> track with my American Beauty resistance set.
> I used the tweezer hand piece. After some practice
> it was easy and no melting plastic ties.
>
> tom

ah, just what i was looking for!  what type of tweezer-style resistance soldering system did u use?  i went to their website and saw the "ultra-light" or "micro capacity" tweezer-style resistance soldering systems.  which one would u recommend for soldering feeder to n-scale flex track and to solder flex track joints?

the videos i have seen of resistance soldering are impressive.

thanks again, for any info........

66 

There's an intriguing video on YouTube about using a Weller soldering gun with the soldering tip cut off as a resistance soldering unit. Has anybody done this? I'm certainly going to give it a go.

EO

---

I could not agree more with Tom.

I purchased the base model American Beauty resistance soldering machine from MicroMark, and have done more than a thousand joints.  This tool is indispensible if you're following the best practice of soldering each and every piece of rail to a feeder.   Seriously it's one of the best investments I've made.  Expensive yes, but the return is that you get a professional-quality job in much less time than using a pencil-type iron.

I also was able to get even more return by modifying older electro-frog switches for DCC.  I did a blog entry about it a while back that illustrates the process, and you can see how many rails need to be soldered once you make cuts!  

http://onondagacutoff.blogspot.com/2010/11/modifying-switches-for-dcc.html

~RGDave

http://www.micromark.com/tweezer-handpiece-for-resistance-soldering-iron,7535.html

tom
goneon66 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ah, just what i was looking for!  what type of
> tweezer-style resistance soldering system did u
> use?