10-01-2016, 03:25 PM
Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:I'm thinking about remaking the cross spans in Phosphor Bronze, as the steel spans did not hold up well. That said, many of the East Penn Traction Convention Attendees insisted that greater heat would do the trick. They independently confirmed my own thoughts that I should probably invest in a resistance soldering set, but they may be out of my price range at this moment.
On the other hand, if I'm going to continue down this electrified road, it may be worth my money.
Chris,
I have used steel for all of the cross-spans on the CVMRR build, quite successfully. People might give you a lot of frippery about heat levels, or special solders, but the real trick is getting it super-bright-clean before attempting to solder. This means that regardless of how 'clean' it looks to start with, I will automatically pull/draw every piece of steel through 600-grit sandpaper folds until I'm sufficiently happy with it's brightness; before even cutting or bending it to shape. Once this has been done, steel will take solder as readily as copper does.
--Drew