Wiring Gargraves Stainless Track

You need a flux specifically for stainless steel.See here for one product. Here is the data sheet for another product. Note that you need to wash the stainless after soldering as the fluxes are corrosive.

Larry

I have used a solder or crimp terminal with insulator removed. Solder wire to terminal and press into the underside of rail. it's worked for me when I need to connect to stainless Rail.

Gerry

see your new layout started post. The screw it method.

Stainless steel is almost impossible to solder too.

First you have to remove the oxidation layer by sanding or filing the surface.

Then you have to use an ACID flux to etch the metal while soldering the joint.

Make sure you clean and remove all of the flux off when you are done so the joint will not corrode.

You might want to investigate using the tabs that are per-soldered and then wedged in from the bottom of the rails.

Sounds like your track is already in place, so this may not help. If it isn't yet fastened down maybe it will.

I used the track pins with wire drops that Gargraves sells to power my stainless Gargraves and they worked fairly well. You do have to be careful not to completely butt the track sections together as that will sometimes break the delicate solder joint holding the wire drop. I used the pins with the wire drops every third track joint and the layout power is very consistent.

I had a lot less fun wiring some manual Ross switches that needed a few jumpers after I installed them. I was able to drill holes from the underside of the table and push in the male bladed crimp connectors into the bottom of the rail. That was a lot more work. I'll completely wire the rest of the manual switches in my yard before they are secured to the layout.

Wire soldered to a terminal spade pushed up into the underside of the rail works well.

Thanks everyone, I actually did some more searching on the net and purchased a "silver" solder/flux kit this morning.  It did the trick, at $8, it was well worth the price instead of tearing up the track.  I will buy the tinplate flextrack for the yard and roundhouse areas to be finished next.

Darren