do you guys do much of this .If so what sort of iron do you use please
Never have, I’m quite capable of causing permanently-scaring injuries on my body without adding a soldering iron to the mix. Why not just use superglue, or is there some special reason you have to use solder to join two PE parts?
Greetings,
Here is the best article I’ve read about the Hows and Whys of soldering photoetch parts–basically, it just works alot better than superglue for attaching metal to metal. I think you’ll really find this article helpful…soldering does seem pretty intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, it really works out pretty well…
http://www.ww2modelmaker.com/articlepub/ESsodht.htm
Good luck,
Rory
That’s a great article, I was just looking for something like that. Thanks very much for the link.
As said solder is simply stronger and for some things CA will never hold well enough. I solder fenders and mounting brackets to exhaust shields on AFV’s and always solder yardarms to masts for ships.
Gee i might have to try that, wonder if that Cold heat soldering iron would work?
Soldering extremely tiny parts to other extremely tiny parts (i.e., some of the more insanely small Aber PE tank parts) might be a bit of a challenge, so for those cases CA glue might be easier (although I’m really considering only my own skill level!), but for parts of any size, I think soldering is the way to go.
Sometimes solder isn’t the answer and CA is…but then I used to solder under microscopes all day, every day to NASA spaceflight and US Naval weapons specs so nothing on a model is too small to solder…but why go through the hassle if CA will do. Just remember, often CA will not do.
shroomy
Hi i use a gas powered iron which i got from B&Q for about £20 its the boxed set as this one has more tips. The best solder i found (unless you know somewere else to get some) is www.micro-mark its in the U.S but it sells very low melt solder called Tix solder & Tix Flux & they are great i`ve tryed to solder with diffrent ones, but this one no problems just get the parts held together flux down the joints add a very small piece of solder then add the heat thats it. Hope this helps. Alan[tup]
good article thanks uproar
Due to the very small size of most photo etch pieces, you don’t need a lot of solder. You can use some NASA spec techniques. You’ll need some small diameter, solid core solder, rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, and an iron with a small tip with flats ground around it. Use an alcohol-soaked cottonball to clean the metal pieces instead of using flux. Tin the iron tip and keep it clean through-out the session. Tin the etch pieces and they won’t need anymore solder to connect them if you hold them together while heating. The tinning layers of solder will join when reheated to melting temps. It’s important here to keep the pieces absolutely still while the solder is molten.
Practice this technique many, many times with left over scrap etch pieces before trying it with the valuable model pieces.