Bought Weller 75 W solder Iron to solder power wire to atlas rail - Couple of questions need answer please

Electrical connection of a wire soldered to a joiner is only as good as the joiner's degrading connection to the rail. OK for a Christmas temp. RR only IMO.

The tip and the base of the tip and it's socket must be perfectly clean must be absolutely  clean.  Clean frequently.

 Give some time to let the iron get to max. temp.

I would use a drop of liquid flux for that. I would flow solder to  the track rail first, tin the wire with solder and then heat the two when pressed together.

FWIW, I use a Weller gun for soldering to Atlas track, works great.  I start by using a Dremel to scuff the surface that I'm going to solder the wire to, and then tin that area.  Tin the wire to be connected and then just apply heat, job done.  The quicker you do the soldering, the less damage to the plastic ties around the joint.  My problem with lower power irons is it takes too long to get the rail to soldering temperature and does too much melting.  I also agree with Tom, I've seen tons of joiners with poor connection to the track, a bad place to put your drops.

cjack posted:

I would use a drop of liquid flux for that. I would flow solder to  the track rail first, tin the wire with solder and then heat the two when pressed together.

Temperature setting?

Bryant Dunivan 111417 posted:

Temperature setting?

HOT!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Bryant Dunivan 111417 posted:

Temperature setting?

HOT!

I had that coming.  Max is 850 F.  Is that OK?

Bryant Dunivan 111417 posted:

cjack posted:

I would use a drop of liquid flux for that. I would flow solder to  the track rail first, tin the wire with solder and then heat the two when pressed together.

Temperature setting?

I usually run the iron hot, generally around 700 deg F. And I get on and off fast...usually about a second or at most two.

Yep.  You want to get the heat on and off as quick as possible when soldering to Atlas track, that minimizes the damage to the plastic ties.  If you're sitting there for an extended period of time with less heat, it tends to do more damage to the plastic.  As soon as the heat is removed, the solid rails quickly dissipate the heat.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Yep.  You want to get the heat on and off as quick as possible when soldering to Atlas track, that minimizes the damage to the plastic ties.  If you're sitting there for an extended period of time with less heat, it tends to do more damage to the plastic.  As soon as the heat is removed, the solid rails quickly dissipate the heat.

See, that's why I come here.  Good answers and a sense of confidence going into the task.  Thank you to all.

Newer soldering stations, especially digital ones, typically have a "standby" temperature setting that the iron goes down to from, say 700 degrees to 350 degrees, after a set period of time (around 2 minutes) if the iron isn't being used. This helps save the iron and tips. The "offset temperature" may be the differential between full on and standby and may be a user controllable setting to set what particular standby temperature you want to use.

I've been using a 140W Weller soldering gun to solder to track for years. Heats quick and works great. I would suggest tinning the rails and wire before soldering them together. The 75W iron doesn't have enough oomph to get the job done.

Lou1985 posted:

I've been using a 140W Weller soldering gun to solder to track for years. Heats quick and works great. I would suggest tinning the rails and wire before soldering them together. The 75W iron doesn't have enough oomph to get the job done.

Oomph or not, that's all I got.  Thanks for the advice.  With a mustard seed of faith, I will give it my best effort.

I will tin both the rails and wire.  I also have a few pieces that I can practice with.  If no go, small screw would be the last resort.

Turn the iron up, tin both, and get on and off fast.

Bryant Dunivan 111417 posted:

Lou1985 posted:

I've been using a 140W Weller soldering gun to solder to track for years. Heats quick and works great. I would suggest tinning the rails and wire before soldering them together. The 75W iron doesn't have enough oomph to get the job done.

Oomph or not, that's all I got.  Thanks for the advice.  With a mustard seed of faith, I will give it my best effort.

I will tin both the rails and wire.  I also have a few pieces that I can practice with.  If no go, small screw would be the last resort.

Yup, practice makes perfect.  And as soon as the solder flows, hit that connection with a damp sponge and cool that sucker down before the ties start "goopifying" (is that a word?). 

Going in hot and fast is best. Going in slow allows too much time for heat to spread. Hot gives a high localized temp before heat can spread if in and out fast. Less btu needs to transfer if you do it hot & fast.

A dot solder of solder at the tip to promote heat transfer; once the piece is hot enough to melt solder too, feed sloder to thet piece not the tip; a few more degrees and it will flow flat; then pull heat away a second or three later. Solder flows to the heat once you are there. Overheat/contaminate metal, and it balls again. The balance is really up to your applying or lifting the heat as needed.

IMO, not enough heat is th #1 reason for most problems.

Another trick is heat sinking metal nearby with locking pliers, large hemostats, a well laid screwdriver blade, etc..  Foil makes good heat shield /bump shield, And coarse stainless Chore Boy scouring pads make for a nice clean tip (a fouled tip is bad. You can clean quickly with a damp sponge or rag, but jabbing it into this steel wool a few times while hot leaves an awsome clean-shine tinned tip, removing old excess well.

70w seems on the light side, it wont go quick.

 I have boosted tip temp.s with torches/ micro-torches many times.  

 You should price a gun. I think Menards had a 150-250w for about $35. Sometimes the big ones can be cheaper too.

Not Weller; but the "yellow guns" also around "forever" aren't a bad gun either. Skinnier & longer gun body, the price is about 25% less average. (I'll try to recall where mine is)

It never hurts to add some flux (heat activated gel acid cleaner) and/or freshen the metal via wire brush, etc..  Clean is important in any molten metal process. Plated and metal treatment can produce issues is another reason to try the abrasive route and expose fresh base metal if there was doubt.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Yep.  You want to get the heat on and off as quick as possible when soldering to Atlas track, that minimizes the damage to the plastic ties.  If you're sitting there for an extended period of time with less heat, it tends to do more damage to the plastic.  As soon as the heat is removed, the solid rails quickly dissipate the heat.

I set my station at 600 degrees F. As GRJ says get on and get off. This is possible by tinning the wire and applying solder to the rail and then applying heat quickly to the wire as the wire is applied to the track where you just applied the solder to the track. 

Bryant Dunivan 111417 posted:

I drilled a small hole in Atlas rail and soldered wire with 40 W iron.  Connection does not hold.  Worked for a while.  I suspect the joint was bad. 

Bought new 75 W Weller along with 63/37 solder whjich I've seen referenced here on the forum.  I have a couple of questions:

1) What would be a good temperature to set the Iron at.

2) What is "Offset Temperature" setting for?  I assume caligration for solder tip temp vs set temp?  Does it matter in this case?  Tip and iron are new.

 

I know it is critical not to melt the plastic ties.  I am open for guidance, but the temperature question is most important, I think?  Thanks in advance.

Should I just solder a wire to the side of the Atlas joiner already on the track?

 

 

The flux is the most important - use a special flux for nickel/silver, then, the 40w will work - industrial supply or perhaps jewelry supply

Edit: google search for product and info