An adventure in brass

[Schraddel]

Hello!

You asked me and i will answer.
This is my soldering equipment:

- A 6W micro soldering iron with a needle like tip; this is for 12V. This is specially for soldering electronis, e.g. soldering wires onto a decoder PCB.
- 25W unversal iron for all purposes, the most used one. The soldering job for the crane was done with this iron.
- 80W for bigger jobs like soldering on brass locos were only sheet metal is involved
- A micro torch, mostly used when brass castings have to be soldered onto brass locos or for repair jobs on brass were you have to put a huge amount of heat very quick concentrated on a small spot.
- 180W, a pre war iron out of the 1930's. A estate from my grandpa. For the more coarse jobs like soldering battery pole clamps on my tractor. Offical called in German a Löthammer (my attempt to translate: "soldering hammer"). 2 hours waiting until heated up, then solder and then wait about 3 to 3.5 hours until it has cooled down... :wait:
- Rosin cored soldering wire 0.5 , 1.0 and 1.5 mm diameters
- Lötfett (flux paste), after soldering the leftovers have to be washed with hot water and detergent to avoid further corrosion. Not for soldering electronics!
- Clamps for fixing the parts to be soldered; if done right it avoids burnt fingertips.
- Not shown are some pliers used for holding hot parts
Thats's all.







For that the crane with it's outrigger is in balance, i mounted a counter weight made out of a piece of lead.




The upper end of the outrigger with the service platform mounted.




The last of the rope discs which are beared onto an own trusswork inside the outrigger's trusswork.
The counterweight and the rear part of the outrigger will later be inside the engine house.

To be continued

Lutz