Terminal Soldering Question


Sweet-Chuck

Member
Hi. Someone generously soldered a bunch of terminals to wires for me. My question is....even though the entire wire end isnt 'tinned', are these okay to use for DCC? I'm not worried too much about the quality of signal being passed to the track, but rather a safety issue ?
Thanks!
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The solder joint looks to be a cold solder joint; however, the two parts are joined. This looks like a good enough joint for DC/DCC operations, to me. If the signal can get through, what possible safety problems might occur, that you are worried about?
 
Chuck:
I found that by I soldering the feeder(s) to the bottom of the jointer(s) is much easier to do and then when installed the feeder wire(s) are hidden. Be sure to use some flux when soldering rail joiners.

Like Mark pointed out about the joints being cold solder joints, I would just re-do the soldering to be safe and not worry about the joint failing in the future. I had a couple of cold solder joints in a control panel and I forgot to re-do them and but it took maybe 8 years for one to fail.

Thanks.

Greg
 
Somebody did these for me because I am hot mess when I solder. I dont do a good job, its frustrating, and takes forever.
 
Way overkill on the wire size!
I would have used stranded wire - easier to work with.
Pre tin both the wire and the joiner.
 
Chuck: Soldering is easy, but just takes practice. There many U-Tube videos that talk about how to solder. It's a good skill to learn because of its many uses you'll fin in the hobby.

Greg
 
Hi. Someone generously soldered a bunch of terminals to wires for me. My question is....even though the entire wire end isnt 'tinned', are these okay to use for DCC? I'm not worried too much about the quality of signal being passed to the track, but rather a safety issue?
I agree with the others. Not the best, but this should work fine. No safety issues. What a nice thing for someone to do for you.
 
Soldering is not "Rocket Surgery" and it is a skill every model railroader should develop. I use Kester Paste Flux for electronics and I'm sorry; but, the spool of Kester Solder I'm using right now has had the description fall off it. I'm sure it is 25 to 30 years old and is a solder with around a .060 diameter and made for soldering electronics. My guess is it is a Rosin Core 60/40 solder (60% tin and 40% lead. Place a small amount of flux on both parts to be soldered together. Let the soldering Iron get completely hot. Place a small amount of solder on the tip of the iron, it should immediately melt into a nice little droplet. Place the parts to be tinned in the droplet of solder and allow the solder to flow onto the parts. Then hold the two parts to be joined together and use the heat from your soldering iron to melt the solder on the tinned parts, so the solder flows between the two parts. Hold steady for a short time and your solder joint has been made. The most important point, is to understand that you need to allow the heat to do the work. The photo is of one of my soldering tools, I use. I like it because it allows variable heat to be applied, holds the soldering iron safely when not in use and has a sponge for cleaning the soldering tip. Keep the tip clean and tinned with solder and if it gets dirty; or, rusty, file the tip down to bare metal.

84383_R-1.jpg
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(Item Number # 84383)

My gun isn't exactly like the one shown but is similar with a selection of tips. The Gun is used when I need to do soldering away from my bench. You should be careful as the gun produces 100 watts of power, whereas the pencil unit can only produce from 5-40 watts of power.
 
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