BR60103's 2010 EOY Chllenge (and 2011?)

[rrinker]

Is it a regular iron or a temperature controlled type? A regular one you just plug in is murder on tips, as they continually get hotter and hotter the entire time they are plugged in. I have a temperature controlled soldering station that I bought about 2 years ago and used for everything from soldering track (joints, and also attempting to handlay turnouts) to decoders. Still goign strong on the original tip. I don't know why I never picked one of these up years ago. I used tohave multipel irons, and was constantly repalcing the tip, and having issues where the tip wouldn't stay clean, etc. With the temperature control it stays nice and shiny, and the BEST thing to clean the tip, far better than a wet sponge, is a copper 'wool' pad. They have them in the store, often used to scour copper pots. Sort of looks like a Brillo pad sort of thing, but it's copper not steel, so it doesn't scrape the plating off the tip of the soldering iron.

--Randy

[BR60103]

Randy: the iron has a temperature control, but I found that it had to be cranked all the way up to do any work. Maybe I'll change tips and use it with the low-mlt solder I bought 20 years ago to do cast metal kits. Thanks for the tip about the copper wool.
This looks like the end of my challenge for the year as my wife has booked all the days until we leave for Florida for other things.

[BR60103]

A note on the holes: The switches were 1/4" wide and approached 7/8" long with the wires on the back.
I drew a line extended from the throw bar and marked it every 1/4" with an awl (start 1/8" from the throw bar in the farthest position). Then I drilled 1/8" holes followed by 1/4" holes. For some of them I marked the desired area with an Xacto knife first. Then I tried to extend all the holes together into a rectangle. This was done by cutting between the dilled holed; running the drill along the rectangle; filing; carving and so on until the microswitch was a push fit (interference fit as the Brits would say). Then make sure the lever on the switch would move with the throw bar and that the switch would operate. Then I added the wires.
To confirm operation, I made a little contraption from two grain of wheat bulbs and 3 jumper clips -- red yellow and green. The yellow was soldered to both bulbs and a red and green to the outside wires. The read and green were clipped to the stock (outer) rails and the yellow to the frog. So I turned the power on. With luck, one bulb would light and a push on the switch would light the other one. If both lit dimly there was a problem with the wires. Also check that the proper bulbs lit. Then push the switch into the hole and adjust it to work at the right time with the points.