JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

I just checked Harbor Freight. They have a 180W gun for $11.99. I don't know how good it is, but I have lots of stuff from them and thay all work.

abufletcher

Now, there's a whole 'nother topic! Personally, I've found I can get fairly sharp bends with up to 3.5mm music wires without using any heat. I put one end in a vice and with a single sharp pull make the bend a bit further than required...and then bend it back to the desired angle. With 4mm and up, it seems to need to be heated. But then you get into the whole question of how much heat, and how to retemper the metal.

2walla

My Feedback: (10)

If you can find an old weller gun grab it.. I have a 35+ year old one I picked up at a yard sale 10 years ago and it works great. Then new ones are a POS... If you keep it on high power for too long it will melt the coils internally. The old ones feel much more substantial and have the chrome plated brass ends that you run the tip thru then bend over 90 degrees.. One thing to remeber is that the solder will flow towards the heat. For 1/4 inch stuff I use the steel mechanics wire too.. it adds a lot of strengh.. For bigger stuff I have used a micro torch and a weller butane soldering iron I picked up at home depot for 10. The butane soldering iron is pretty hard to beat for the money and I usually take it with me in my field box.. I have fixed a lot of guys stuff with it at the field.

MTK

Kelly,

Let me suggest one more thing in regard to your iron or gun...Make sure the tip is making good contact with the gun's or iron's terminals. You may need to remove the actual tip, sand or wire brush the end that enters the terminal to clean, and re-assemble, before turning the iron or gun on. The contacts oxidize with use and don't allow good electrical contact.

The soldering tip should also be as clean as possible for best heat transfer. And definitely do the solder drop trick....it improves heat transfer to the work about 10-fold

As far as wire wrapping goes, I use stainless soft wire, around .015 to .020" in diameter to wrap most joints. On fifth scale stuff, that size will work great. Copper will also work, but for the same weight, why not use stronger material? I don't agree with some statements that state wire is there just to hold things until solder is applied. Wire is there to reinforce the joint just like glass or carbon reinforces wood. Solder (either standard or silver bearing) has relatively low strength compared to wire just like any glue has low strength compared to any reinforcing material such as glass or carbon. Stainless wire will only work with silver bearing solder (or silver brazing) and will not work with "common" electrical solder and flux.

BTW- silver brazing is a much much stronger technique than low temp soldering and is technique worth learning also.

Propworn

My Feedback: (3)

I made my own wire benders but these from Harry Higgly work very good. I routinely cold bend up to and including 1/4 piano wire with no problem

http://www.horizonhobby.com/products...5-32-HIGHWB011

Some instruction and helpfull hints here

http://www.harryhigley.com/Tools2.htm

WWIIP38

My Feedback: (43)

Blazer (mini) torches work great for silver soldering.
http://www.amazon.com/Blazer-GB4001-...4255390&sr=8-2

I have found that if you don't clean the flux off the solder joint after soldering, the metal will oxidize (rust).

Propworn

My Feedback: (3)

One other thing to consider is that you should not use the same soldering equipment you are using for electrical/electronic for acid flux applications. Electrical components don't like the acid flux stuff.

Sand paper is ok if you clean everything before assembly and soldering. Alcohol is no good for cleaning as it does not cut petroleum base oils such as what is on the piano wire. Varsol/common paint thinner is no good as it leaves a residue. A high active solvent such as lacquer thinner, MEK or acetone works best.

kljenkin

Hydro Junkie

kljenkin
No need to apoligize for buying one tool over another. Personnal preferences and finances go a long way in dictating what we end up buying. I bought my pencil torch over a decade ago for around $80 and have used the heck out of it, both on the job and for building R/C models. I even used it in an electrical class I took a few years ago and learned a few new tricks then as well. Just because it works for me doesn't mean it will for everyone else. I only showed it as an alternative to an electric iron, no more no less[8D]

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

Abuflight,

Are you picking on me???

Eindecker_pilot

One major factor is the size of the parts you're trying to solder together. When I started doing larger landing gears (1/4" & bigger diameter music wire), even my big soldering iron wasn't enough. These bigger parts just acted like heat sinks & all I did was evaporate the flux & never got quite hot enough for good solder flow. Then I switched to a propane torch & got much better results. With the propane torch (just the simple brass kind that fits on the end of the propane bottle), you've got more than enough energy output to heat up bigger metal parts. When using a torch, just be sure to heat the parts up gradually (I move the flame around to heat up the zone evenly), don't leave it one spot & overheat one area since that will just make a nasty oxide film that you'll have to sand off.

good luck,
Greg

ARUP

The first pic is of landing gear for a 1/6 PA-12 Super Cruiser. The spreader axles are joined to brass with low temp Stay-Brite solder. A brass tube acts as a bearing. It has holes in the end to receive a cotter pin. The other brass tube fits in the plastic wheel's hub. See how shiney the joints are? That's a good thing! The small parts are more easily joined using heat from a flame (propane torch). Having to contact the parts with an iron isn't practical - at least for me. The other pics show the sequences needed to fabricate a tailwheel assembly. Not exact scale but but better than the stuff being sold. The DuBro plastic wheel hub wasn't melted or burnt during the process. The torch heats things quickly so that other things aren't affected. It's very frustrating to solder one area only to have something fall off from another. On this tailwheel I was able to solder the axle to the fork without melting the hub. I put aluminum foil between the fork and wheel when applying the torch. I didn't want to use those ugly wheel collars that loosen and fall off. Once the solder flowed I removed the heat and cooled things quickly with air (my breath) and then spritzing water onto it. Then everything gets a good soapy washing to get rid of flux. Now the part is ready for the next soldering operation.

fledermaus

I had never done much soldering before I decided to build proper "Sopwith" undercarriage for my scratch Camel. Thanks to the tips from abufletcher and others I decided to give it a go. It is really easy if you take it slowly and prepare your parts carefully.

I actually used "brazing" rather than soldering, with a gas torch from the local hardware/automotive emporium. Got the silver brazing wire and the proper flux from a local welders' supply store.

No need to wrap the joints if you have them properly fitted and cleaned, and if you are brazing.
I have used steel wire wrapping for the struts on a set of floats that I built for my LT-40, and there I just used plumber's solder since the wrapping was going to provide a lot of the strength.

Just go for it![8D]

kljenkin

My Tower Hobbies order for the StayBrite Kit is on the way. Ihave my eye on a torch at Walmart. So next week, I hope to start playing around. :-)