Joined: 20/02/2005(UTC)
Views messages in topic : 1,729
Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Due to some extensive cleaning of paint the puko's of a few K-track switches, some puko's have been damaged or dissapearerd. This leads to loss of power, causing the trains to stop in the middle of my station. Not a desirable situation to have.
Therefor I want to fit a piece of copper over that specific part, in order to restore power supply to that section.
Here comes the problem and my question: how?
Soldering doesnt seem to work. A'm I doeing something wrong or is it just not posible to solder something on K-Track?
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Joined: 28/09/2006(UTC)
Posts: 136
Location: Newton Abbot, Devon. UK.
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Soldering should work on the Puko strip as I believe these are normal steel not stainless. I have just bought some second hand K track that has had wires soldered to the Puko strip.
Everyone seems to concur that soldering directly to the rail is impossible, but I was told by soldering expert that using the right solder with a hot enough gun, it should be possible.
Unfortunately my soldering leaves a lot to be desired, I think I will stick to C track in future!
Cheers,
Peter. |
3 Rail/2 Rail Märklin, Fleischmann, Roco. DCC. |
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Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 9,273
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You can try by using fiberglass pencil and scrape on the side of rail before to soldering.
You can even too,by using an piece of metal like Marklin´s footplace of catenary and using it as contact connecting at K-tracks and soldering it at.
About studcontact,i suggest by soldering at contactclips under the tracks.
But you can also cut an small pieces off from K-track sleeper and soldering on openframe metalcontact which you can see it.
And after that,you are using same cutoff sleeper and cut an track under sleeper(for soldering cable) and placement it back on the track.
Good luck! |
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
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 Joined: 17/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 18,769 Location: New Zealand
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A bit of soldering flux works wonders! I have just been constructing some home made catenary for hidden areas out of pieces of construction tie wire, and also some brass welding rods. I was wondering why I could not get a good strong join between pieces, even though I had plenty of temperature (400 deg c) and solder with a flux core. In desperation I tried a dab of flux solution I had, and that helped immensely to get the pieces to stick together with a nice clean join.
And as Goofy suggests, clean the pukos first with a bit of emery paper, so there is a nice clean surface to solder to.
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Joined: 09/08/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,919 Location: Auckland,
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Quote:[size=1" face="Verdana" id="quote]quote:Due to some extensive cleaning of paint the puko's of a few K-track switches, some puko's have been damaged or dissapearerd. This leads to loss of power, causing the trains to stop in the middle of my station. Not a desirable situation to have. What on earth did you clean it with?
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Joined: 20/02/2005(UTC)
Views messages in topic : 1,729
Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Ahem ... a piece of sandpaper [:I][:I]
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 Joined: 03/11/2007(UTC) Posts: 2,764
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Maybe not the most beautiful solution, but wou can take a copper wire to bridge the gap. You can solder direct to the wire.
Another possible solution is to use a copper nail and place it directly besides the puko. Never done that, but read about it somewhere. |
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Joined: 18/12/2009(UTC)
Posts: 20
Location: Boise, Idaho
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Rules for soldering: (Learned from an old time plumber and from years of building electronic kits).
These basic rules apply to pretty much anything to be soldered, pipe or electrical connections.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness when soldering. Always make sure the parts to be soldered are nice and clean. Fine sand paper or a bit of scotchbrite pad should help. Even the oils from your fingers can cause the sodler not to bond...so after you have cleaned your parts, try not to touch them with your fingers.
Flux the parts...flux is a cleaning agent that helps the solder bond.
ALWAYS heat the massive (the biggest part to be soldered). NEVER heat the solder itself. Allow the solder to be melted by the heated parts. It should flow into the joint and have a smooth, shiny appearance. Don't use too much solder...just enough to do the job.
Heating the solder itself or not applying enough heat to the joint will almost always result in a cold solder joint (dull appearance, solder lumps up and barely bonds).
Use the right amount of heat for the job. A small, low wattage iron for soldering printed circuit boards, a high wattage soldering gun for soldering large wires or smaller pieces of metal, or a torch for soldering large metal objects, like sheet metal or pipe.
If you are afraid of overheating something, use a heat sink...for small applications, I use a pair of soldering tweezers or medical hemostats.
Use the right solder and flux for the job. Never use acid flux for electrical applications. 60/40 rosin core solder and non acid flux should do for most small jobs and electronic applications. Use a lead free solder for pipe.
Above all, making good soldering joints is not hard to do, it just takes practice , and after awhile you will develop a feel for it.
Just use these basic rules as your guide.
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