Page 37 - All Scale Rails Magazine Issue 3 July August 2015

www.AllScaleRails.com

Most model railroaders at some point in time will face the task of soldering, usually electrical
wires. It can seem daunting if you’ve never done it before or haven’t done it for a while. Once
you’re familiar with all the parts, you’ll be more comfortable to take on more advanced proj-
ects.

First thing you need to know is that there are different types of soldering irons and soldering
guns. Some have a higher wattage and some have digital controls, for example. There are also
different types of solder with different melt temperatures. They come in different thicknesses
and are made from different metals.

Also, you’ll need to make sure that you have the right type of flux for your wiring job as well.
You’ll need the flux for electrical as some other types are acidic and corrosive and not benefi-
cial for soldering electrical wires.

Safety, as always, is the most important thing. Make sure you never touch your hot soldering
iron to your hands or to any surface. The soldering process may be messy, so never do any sol-
dering on or over any surface that you don’t want speckled in shiny silver metal or sticky flux.

Tinning a Single Wire

First plug in and turn on your soldering iron.
Next you are going to need to strip off the out-
er casing to expose the metal wire inside. Line
up the wire stripper to the gauge of wire you
are stripping. You will want to strip off ap-
proximately ½ to ¾ of an inch.

Place the wire into the stripper, close the
stripper, scoring the outer casing and pull the
scored casing away from the rest. Once the
casing has begun to pull away, you can finish
taking off the rest of the casing with your fin-
gers.

Issue # 3 2015 37