Traeth Mawr -Painting Season, (mostly)

[Donw]

Chris I have soldering mats from plumbing work but dont use them for modelling.

 

A piece of board (mdf chipboard or ply will be fine)  Fix a strip along one edge (a machine cut edge should be at 90deg)  which will give you a corner so you can solder two pieces at right angles. Along two edges will give you a corner.  Somewhere to rest the iron  a decent light flux and solder ( I recommend lead based 145 - less heat needed)

 

Don

[Simond]

I try to avoid mdf as a soldering base, it scorches, swells and stinks if cooked, but, it is normally very flat. Small off cuts of "real wood" also scorch, but they don't swell or stink! And they don't swell when you drop flux on them either!

 

I have a selection of squared off pieces of timber ranging from an inch or so to the length of a loco. Don's suggestion of an "inside corner" to hold pieces square for soldering is good.

 

Talking of building locos, it's a good investment of time & effort to cut a piece of wood to fit under the footplate to support it and keep it flat during the build. When we replaced the old hardwood window frames, I kept the timber for this sort of job.

 

I have a Pandrol clip which makes a fine rest for a soldering iron, but those spring things work well. You can screw them down to your workbench if you like. A metal pan scourer is useful for cleaning the tip of the iron, as is one of those wet sponge things.

 

HTH

Simon

[ChrisN]

Chris I have soldering mats from plumbing work but dont use them for modelling.

 

A piece of board (mdf chipboard or ply will be fine)  Fix a strip along one edge (a machine cut edge should be at 90deg)  which will give you a corner so you can solder two pieces at right angles. Along two edges will give you a corner.  Somewhere to rest the iron  a decent light flux and solder ( I recommend lead based 145 - less heat needed)

 

Don

Thanks Don,

I have plenty of ply so that will not be a problem. Have to see what sizes I have.  It has been cut by machine so the corners should be fine.  I have a solder stand.  I bought some flux and solder the other week although I already have some.  I was advised 179 but I will see if the earlier stuff was 145.

 

My (very poor) soldering previously has been electrical so I have not worried what I was soldering over.  Hot brass on a cutting mat did not seem very clever to me.

[Simond]

Definitely don't use your cutting mat!

 

An old ceramic tile will work if you want something "heatproof"

 

Best

Simon

[ChrisN]

I try to avoid mdf as a soldering base, it scorches, swells and stinks if cooked, but, it is normally very flat. Small off cuts of "real wood" also scorch, but they don't swell or stink! And they don't swell when you drop flux on them either!

 

I have a selection of squared off pieces of timber ranging from an inch or so to the length of a loco. Don's suggestion of an "inside corner" to hold pieces square for soldering is good.

 

Talking of building locos, it's a good investment of time & effort to cut a piece of wood to fit under the footplate to support it and keep it flat during the build. When we replaced the old hardwood window frames, I kept the timber for this sort of job.

 

I have a Pandrol clip which makes a fine rest for a soldering iron, but those spring things work well. You can screw them down to your workbench if you like. A metal pan scourer is useful for cleaning the tip of the iron, as is one of those wet sponge things.

 

HTH

Simon

 

Simon,

Thank you,

I have just been and looked and all my ply is all to big but that is a problem that can be solved.  I also have a bread board that I have used for modelling but not so good for a corner.  I do have some York Modelling magnets to hold items at 90⁰ but I am a little wary of getting heat near them.

 

All my useful bits of wood did not survive our move; to be fair some had come with us on the previous move.  I will note what you say about a block under the footplate but I am a long way from that yet.

 

I have a springy thing but it does not have a sponge but I can acquire a pan scourer. 

[Donw]

Chris

the 179deg will be ok just needs a little more heat.  If the iron has a coated tip be wary of damaging the surface. I think the cleaners are a brass version of a brillo pad. I would not use steel wool. I find a bit of kitchen towel quite handy.

I have made a corner to use but cannot find the photo at the moment.

 

Don

[mike morley]

In the past I've used bits of plywood and hardboard to solder on and suffered all the problems mentioned above.  I've also had problems when doing jobs where even briefly sustained pressure with the soldering iron was required (laminating coupling/connecting rods being the most obvious example) and resulted in a dark brown, sometimes almost black, slightly furry stain of scorched material embedding itself on the surface of whatever I was soldering.  It is a pig to scrape off and having wasted an hour or so doing so once too often I invested in a quarter-inch thick, eight-inch square slab of paxolin from Eileen's Emporium a few months ago and realised the moment I used it for the first time that I ought to have bought one years ago.

[ChrisN]

In the past I've used bits of plywood and hardboard to solder on and suffered all the problems mentioned above.  I've also had problems when doing jobs where even briefly sustained pressure with the soldering iron was required (laminating coupling/connecting rods being the most obvious example) and resulted in a dark brown, sometimes almost black, slightly furry stain of scorched material embedding itself on the surface of whatever I was soldering.  It is a pig to scrape off and having wasted an hour or so doing so once too often I invested in a quarter-inch thick, eight-inch square slab of paxolin from Eileen's Emporium a few months ago and realised the moment I used it for the first time that I ought to have bought one years ago.

 

Mike,

Thank you.  What do you do about making things square?  I will look on their website and see what they have.

 

I have a chipped ceramic tile in the shed but it is a fancy one which looks as thogh it is made up of lots of smaller ones so is not appropriate.  I will have a hunt and see what else the is around.

Edited November 19, 2015 by ChrisN

[mike morley]

I've got a 4" engineers square, which is just a bit too big to be really useful, and have been nagging myself for years to get a smaller one without ever getting a Round Tuit.

I also use steel rulers in combination with Blu-Tak.  A fairly thin, easily readable 6-inch Rabone ruler is used only for measuring.  A somewhat thicker, not-so-easily read 6-inch Toff ruler is used mostly as a straight-edge for cutting and scribing.  I have got a 12-inch ruler but rarely use it.

Anything used as a straight-edge should be checked regularly to make sure it is still straight.  I was quite surprised to discover just how quickly the edge wears to a distinctly concave shape.

[ChrisN]

I've got a 4" engineers square, which is just a bit too big to be really useful, and have been nagging myself for years to get a smaller one without ever getting a Round Tuit.

I also use steel rulers in combination with Blu-Tak.  A fairly thin, easily readable 6-inch Rabone ruler is used only for measuring.  A somewhat thicker, not-so-easily read 6-inch Toff ruler is used mostly as a straight-edge for cutting and scribing.  I have got a 12-inch ruler but rarely use it.

Anything used as a straight-edge should be checked regularly to make sure it is still straight.  I was quite surprised to discover just how quickly the edge wears to a distinctly concave shape.

 

Mike,

I have a engineers square which is probably about the same size or a little smaller.  I use the York magnetic set squares for gluing but am a little wary of using them near a hot iron. I do have some pieces of aluminium angle so I will see if I can use that.

 

If I look on Eileen's Emporium perhaps I will have to send you a Round Tuit, but they do not seem to be in stock very often.

[Jock67B]

Chris,

In all honesty, I haven't done much soldering for some years, apart from mending slot racing and radio controlled cars and helicopters for grandchildren/great grandchildren! I have a thick teak kitchen chopping board that I used to use for cooking - with one side trimmed by a couple of inches using the jig-saw, the off-cut was cut in half, and both pieces glued and screwed to form a 'corner'. My soldering iron stand, complete with spring, sits on the board! You can now buy such boards very cheaply from places like the range, mine was good quality and so has never warped although it does show some battle scars and burn marks. No pic I'm afraid as I'm currently in bed with a bug, and it is somewhere in the garage. Hope this might help,

Kind regards,

Jock.

[ChrisN]

Chris,

In all honesty, I haven't done much soldering for some years, apart from mending slot racing and radio controlled cars and helicopters for grandchildren/great grandchildren! I have a thick teak kitchen chopping board that I used to use for cooking - with one side trimmed by a couple of inches using the jig-saw, the off-cut was cut in half, and both pieces glued and screwed to form a 'corner'. My soldering iron stand, complete with spring, sits on the board! You can now buy such boards very cheaply from places like the range, mine was good quality and so has never warped although it does show some battle scars and burn marks. No pic I'm afraid as I'm currently in bed with a bug, and it is somewhere in the garage. Hope this might help,

Kind regards,

Jock.

 

Jock,

Thank you,  I will add this to my list of ideas.

 

Look after yourself and hope you recover soon.

[mike morley]

.  I use the York magnetic set squares for gluing but am a little wary of using them near a hot iron.

 

Magnets can withstand far, far more heat than is generally realised without losing their magnetism.  Electric motors can get too hot to touch without their magnets being affected.  In the not-too-distant past the motors in some Bachmann locos got so hot the tops of the fireboxes melted, yet the quality of running was unaffected.

 

Round Tuits, on the other hand . . .

[Allegheny1600]

Hello Chris,

Long time no post I'm afraid, sorry about that! I'm currently taking a break so can catch up at last.

It has been very interesting indeed reading the last few pages and I've learned a lot of useful tips, thanks everyone.

I can offer just one little soldering tip (no pun intended!), I think it is called "Mr tippy" and is a tiny tin of a hard paste type of substance that can clean and refresh your iron's tip. I've been using it for a while now and it's great!

Cheers,

John.

[ChrisN]

Hello Chris,

Long time no post I'm afraid, sorry about that! I'm currently taking a break so can catch up at last.

It has been very interesting indeed reading the last few pages and I've learned a lot of useful tips, thanks everyone.

I can offer just one little soldering tip (no pun intended!), I think it is called "Mr tippy" and is a tiny tin of a hard paste type of substance that can clean and refresh your iron's tip. I've been using it for a while now and it's great!

Cheers,

John.

 

John,

Thank you.  Yes the amount of information has been quite incredible really.  It shows the value of the forum even away from not is normally modelled.

 

I will look out for Mr Tippy, it must e better than threadening the iron with 'Wet & Dry'.

[Simond]

If you have a plated iron tip, avoiding abrasives is important. If you don't (in either sense), use of abrasives becomes a frequent activity.

 

My old heavyweight gets a treat of the file on a regular basis. My plated Maplin iron gets a wipe on the jeans or on the wet sponge provided for the purpose.

 

Best

Simon

[Penlan]

Farnells do 'Tippy' by Stannol, £8.82 + P&P plus VAT (I expect).

 

CPC do something similar called 'Tip Cleaner' by Multicore, £5.15 inclusive P&P and VAT.
(I'm told it does the same job - CPC are P&P free on any order at present)...

Edited June 1, 2015 by Penlan

[ChrisN]

I have been doing some modelling recently but not with many pictures.  I have made a posh desk, for no other reason than that I wanted to, I have started to make some more chairs but this is a slow process especially when you keep putting things on top of them and have to glue the bits back together again, or just start again.  Also I have started to build the PO coal wagon, with as it says on the kit, 'real working dumb buffers.  More of all this later.

 

What I have done is used 'Tacky Wax' to hold the furniture in the living room in place.

 

 

This means that I can add the wall.

 

 

The doors were made by cutting them out of the wall and adding plastic strip to form the panelling.  I decided not to put the door surround on the wall but to put strip around the outside of the door.  The reason was that in normal houses the walls are thicker than the doors so on one side the door will be recessed and I felt that it would not look right.  I am not sure now.  The biggest problem, if it is a problem, is that you can only have the doors modelled closed.

 

I painted the doors and I really like the colour.  The only problem is that when I went to do a second coat I could not remember what colour I had used.  I had had a tidy up so the paint I had used had been put away.  I was convinced it was my new acrylic paint which is Humbrol RC415, Umber.  If it was it was not mixed properly as it is much darker than that.  Having looked at various browns I painted one door on the other side using Humbrol 186, Brown.

 

 

It is the one on the right.  One panel has been painted in Umber, but this door is under the stairs so may not matter.  Hopefully, I will be able to attach the wall this week and then the stairs, what I have already made.

 

I am advancing slowly on several fronts, although it may seem a little glacial at times.

 

If you have been, thanks for looking.

[Donw]

As a lad when soldering my grandad used a iron on the gas ring with a big lump of copper on the end  a quick touch of the file tin it and you had a lovely clean tip for the next joint. I discovered a small tipped one used for work on radios. I used it to assemble some etches in the back of the van during my lunch break.

Some of the Weller iron have a solid tip held in by a screw. You can use a bit of brass or copper rod shaped to suit the job just tin the tip. Can be useful sometimes.

 

Don

[ChrisN]

As a lad when soldering my grandad used a iron on the gas ring with a big lump of copper on the end  a quick touch of the file tin it and you had a lovely clean tip for the next joint. I discovered a small tipped one used for work on radios. I used it to assemble some etches in the back of the van during my lunch break.

Some of the Weller iron have a solid tip held in by a screw. You can use a bit of brass or copper rod shaped to suit the job just tin the tip. Can be useful sometimes.

 

Don

 

I have an enormous iron in the shed, but I think it is electric, but it may not be.  I am not even sure where it came from but it could have been my dad's although he would never have used it. I will dig it out and see

[Donw]

The corner

 

 

this is a use anywhere corner any two parts to be assembled at a right angle can be held in the corner usefull for building rolling stock, buildings etc.

 

Don

[ChrisN]

The corner

 

corner.jpg

 

this is a use anywhere corner any two parts to be assembled at a right angle can be held in the corner usefull for building rolling stock, buildings etc.

 

Don

 

Don,

Thank you.  I Think that is not beyond my capabilities, although I do not promise to post what I achieve.

[Simond]

I have an old iron I bought in a junk shop for a couple of quid - the copper bit is worth more than that...

 

Never used it. I was told that the GPO linesmen used them. Heat it on a blowlamp, then throw it to the man up the pole, who hopefully catches it (by the right end), solders the joint, and then drops it back to his mate. Repeat...

[Quarryscapes]

Shipbuilding along the west coast would have been entirely for sailing ships, Only Caernarfon & Port Dinorwic would have built steam powered vessels, Porthmadog would have probably been able to repair small ones too but is unlikely to have built any. 

 

Here's some Pwllheli based info:

 

http://www.rhiw.com/y_mor/hanes_llongau_llyn/pwllheli/pwllheli_shipbuilding..htm

 

This may have more info but is a pig to navigate

 

http://freespace.virgin.net/r.cadwalader/maritime/gwynedd.htm

[ChrisN]

Shipbuilding along the west coast would have been entirely for sailing ships, Only Caernarfon & Port Dinorwic would have built steam powered vessels, Porthmadog would have probably been able to repair small ones too but is unlikely to have built any. 

 

Here's some Pwllheli based info:

 

http://www.rhiw.com/y_mor/hanes_llongau_llyn/pwllheli/pwllheli_shipbuilding..htm

 

This may have more info but is a pig to navigate

 

http://freespace.virgin.net/r.cadwalader/maritime/gwynedd.htm

 

Alan,

Thank you, I will go through these at my leisure.  It is interesting that the 1901 census of Barmouth does not list anyone as having the occupation of 'Boat Builder' or such like.  There are carpenters and joiners but I assume that the boat building has shrunk inti insignificance by then.