Tools, oh the joy

I imagine most model railroaders like tools. One of the reasons for having a model railroad, is to use those little jewels. One of the lessons I learned from my Dad was to buy good tools. They never let you down.

So, I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences with tools for the layout. To start it off, I will share three things I have learned or discovered as highly useful during my layout benchwork phase:

1 - The Black and Decker dust buster battery powered vacuum is my most used tool, next to my electric drill. $35 at Walmart By the way, it keeps my wife much happier with the condition of my train room. (I had to buy her one for the kitchen too.)



2 - I have read that cutting 3/4 ply with a sabre saw is cake, well never in my life was it. My old Cheap, Skill 35 special beat me to death cuting anything and it was never straight or square, in any direction! So, last week, at HD, I looked over their selection an decided to try a Bosch 1587AVS and WOW! Where has this saw been all my life! And, it cam with a free orbital sander too boot, about $140. Cutting 3/4 is like cutting on a band saw. Nice, smooth, no flopping around.



3 - Been using dremels and die grinders for 30 years, could not live without them, wore a couple of dremels out and use my big Makita for bigger jobs. Then I saw the new Dremel Lithium ION Cordless, put a chuck on it and it is a very useful tool, especially when nailing track, I can easily pre-drill holes to push nails into even the most subborn hardwood. Just like your old dremel, but with no Cord! HD 70 bucks. This is a very handy tool!

4 - I am a bit of a tool nut, so when I was told about Xuron nippers, I purchased a new pair right then. I received the obligatory "these are for cutting rail ONLY" speech. OK, I said. Well, these 'dikes' are about as sharp and precision set of side cutters I've ever owned, so it only took a few days for me to abandon my other dikes. (For that one person on the planet who does not know, dikes is slang for diagonal side cutting pliers.)

Remembering the admonition to only use on rail, I started wondering if these were actually kinda cheap pliers that would quickly dull and loose their effectiness at cutting rail. So, I bought a second set and put them in the tool box over a year ago as a 'spare' to be used when the first pair became sloppy at cutting rail. Well, the new pair is still in the package. Brand spankin new!

I use my Xuron rail nippers for everything BUT cutting spring steel and if I think it might be like spring steel I don't use them, meaning I don't cut nails, screws or the like. But I have cut a few thousand pieces of wire, flash, pulled rail nails, even clipped my toenails, ((just kidding)! ;;)

So, I shared some of my new tool choices and discoveries with you, how about sharing yours with us? You can do that by adding a comment to this entry!

Soldering and unsoldering train things. . .

Tips on soldering and unsoldering train stuff. . . (updated 12-24-2007)

Unsoldering
The issue is usually how to unsolder something. Almost always, the problem with unsoldering something is the lack of flux in the existing joint. This is where a bottle of liquid flux is invaluable. In the electronics repair business, we typically paint the old joint with some liquid rosin flux with a small brush.

Using a larger iron is better for unsoldering. A smaller iron takes longer to heat the object, that time translates to heat migration and the area gets overall hotter than using a larger iron. I use an iron of 45 watts for everything. Remember, with soldering, the object is to get in and get out quickly. By the way, I never burn ties.

It is kind of like a house painter, they will use a 4 inch brush for things you and I would use a 1 inch. They have the technique and skill honed to use the larger tool. Soldering is an art, you have to develop and practice the technique.

Liquid soldering flux
From GC Electronics Completely non-corrosive liquid solder flux consisting of a solution of special rosin in alcohol. Contains no traces of acids or chlorides and is completely safe to use on even the most delicate electronic equipment. For electronics applications. $6.95
http://www.action-electronics.com/kester.htm#Flux

Here are the tools I use to solder everything from a decoder wire to an HO rail. There is NO adjustment on my Iron, by the way. The advantages of the station is the thermostatic control and the sponge. Simple soldering irons typically have poor or no thermostatic control and get hotter and hotter the longer you use them as evidenced by their burned up tips. The tip in my Iron is 5 or 6 years old. It does not burn up, and is easy to re-tin. I cannot tell you how many times I left it on all night. My soldering station is an old TC202 Weller. They can be had on Ebay, I recently purchased a spare in near mint condition (compared to my old unit) for less than $40 including shipping. The tips are still available.

Lesson Learned
Soldering iron tips wear out much faster when you use acid core solder like when hand laying track

Too bad we don't have a video of the time I sat on my soldering pencil in a computer room about 20 years ago, burned a hole in my pants and my butt!

These are the primary tools I use to do all the soldering on my layout. The two larger rolls of solder are there for illustration purposes. I only use the tiny stuff on the left. The yellow disk is solder wick, a copper braid useful in removing excess solder from a board. Been years since I used it.

The most useful tool for soldering that I have is this marvelous tool.



A brass solder sucker, only time I use this is when I am removing a part from a printed circuit board, or I am cleaning up excess solder on track joint or feeder I removed.

Battery powered soldering pencils

In 1975 or so, when all of my electric drills had cords, not battery packs, I purchased a battery powered soldering pencil. In a nut shell, it sucked:

• Took too long to get hot,
• The tip was hard to keep tinned,
• My finger did not like staying on the power button,
• If I used the switch latch to keep the iron on all the time, it got too hot,
• And, battery technology in 1975 was not quite where it is in 32 years later.
  

In Home Depot the other week, a soldering pencil, battery powered, portable, caught my eye. And, it was a Weller brand. Yes, I remembered 1975 right away. But it was only 15 bucks. Only my 1/2 hammer drill has a cord these days. Why had I waited so long to buy one of these, I thought?

At home, I was too busy to do anything but put the iron on the charger so it was the next day before I got to use it. I needed to solder a couple of 16 gauge wires together in a splice somewhere under the layout. Ah, I thought a perfect opportunity to use the new iron. And it is fully charged. I grabbed it and headed under the table. Boy did I get upset. Remember all of those things I said were wrong in 1975? Well, none of them had been fixed! But there was a difference this time, I took this one back and got my 15 bucks, instead of letting the batteries go to ash and ruin the bottom of my tool box like the last one did!

You'd think someone actually made a battery operated soldering pencil that works properly. Maybe I am just spoiled to my Weller soldering station that works perfectly every time.

Go figure!

Joe