While I know how to work the material and I have the tools, there is still a touch of trepidation everytime I look at soldering brass parts together. That's mostly because, there's really no turning back once you start.
Yes you can unsolder, however the brass usually gets mangled in the process, and then the frustration level rises, and then temptation to toss things across the room, etc.
I'm currently building some O scale kits from Mullet River Models. A nice mix of laser cut wood parts and etched brass underframes.
It is the underframe of the one boxcar that I'm going to show you.
Here we have the wooden stringers and the etched bits cut from the fret and folded into the C channel shapes. The centre flanges had to be shortened to accommodate coupler boxes
The various pieces are slotted together and lined up on the wooden floor . This was easier than trying to pin all these parts to a board. I could keep the assembly square by aligning with the scribed floor planks.
I lightly tacked the joints with my conventional soldering iron, holding the parts with my fingers and tweezers. And once that was done I tinned the top flanges of the bolsters for the bolster caps, along with the back side of the bolster caps.
Now I could move the assembly onto my resistance soldering base plate and firm up all the joints and sweat the bolster caps in place.
Finally the queen posts were soldered in place.
I figure I spent all most as much time thinking about what and how I was going to tackle this task, as I did actually executing it.
I really don't care for going back if I can at all avoid it.
1 comment:
Great job. I have built three of Glenn's cars, the first one with him watching over me 😁
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