Hi All,
I have a crappy soldering iron that I manage to make work for soldering on the railways, but I'm about to undertake some work for the wife that will require me to do some pretty fine soldering with brass rod and wire. I am aware I probably need a better soldering iron and it has been offered by boss, but I need to know a little more about them.. so I thought 'Who would know about soldering small bits of brass?', who else but the N Gauge forum!.
I'd like to know what a resistance soldering iron is, and why its good, and what should I be looking out for when shopping for a new one?
Thanks in advance, I know I could do a little google-fu, but I trust people here more than a random website!
Cheers
G.
As I understand it resistance soldering works by putting the two parts together with a little soldering paste in between, then passing an electrical current through via the iron's electrodes with localised heat build up via electrical resistance. I understand it can be effective both for tiny joints and also for joining flat plates. It seems a bit like the soldering equivalent of spot-welding :)
https://stellartechnical.com/blogs/electronic-assembly-technical-resources/why-resistance-soldering-instead-of-conductive-soldering (https://stellartechnical.com/blogs/electronic-assembly-technical-resources/why-resistance-soldering-instead-of-conductive-soldering)
If you're in the market for a new soldering iron (as opposed to resistance soldering, which I've not encountered before), I can highly recommend one of these:
https://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/zd-931-89-3102/soldering-station-bs-plug/dp/SD01119?fi=wp
For £40+vat, they're a really nice kit, with good temperature control & quick to heat up/cool down. You can buy all manner of tips for them (from very fat to very thin), and spare irons. I recommend getting at least one spare iron - in the 10 or so years I've owned mine, I've had a couple of irons die. The base unit, though, continues to work beautifully. I have no affiliation with CPC (I actually bought mine when they were on the Farnell site), and it's probably worth looking around, you might find a better deal.
This is the resistance soldering unit to get. Expensive though: http://londonroadmodels.com/various_pages/rsu.php
Just to make things clear, a resistance soldering unit is not an alternative to a conventional iron. It comes into its own for assembling etched brass or nickel silver kits and similar operations in scratch building. Ideally you would have both, but a conventional iron is essential if you are going to do any soldering at all.