The Ship Model Forum

I'm getting into PE in a big way and see opportunities to solder PE instead of gluing it. I've done precision soldering and am guite good at it, but PE is another thing entirely. I often use TIX low melting point, non-lead solder that can be used very precisely with little heat. It's used by jewelers often.

You're doing what's needed when PE needs this approach. See the following. This outfit makes some double sided PEand at the end of the article they show how they afix the sides of their two sided WT doors. http://www.am-works.com/store/working-w ... -p-98.html

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Russ

Fine Scale Modeler just had an article a few issues back on how to solder PE. Very informative. Might be able to find it on their website.

Thanks. I ordered the issue. It was the April 2010 issue, so it shows how fast time passes when we remember it as a "few months" back.

Good article. So far, I'm sticking with the CA method, but I'm coming up on some assemblies that, if I could, would make a great way to hold parts together. Unlike glue, solder forms an amalgam with the base metals and thereby becomes inseparable from them. The thinner the solder film, the stronger the resulting joint. But, the parts I'm considering, like the gun director radar systems, are very, very small and would be a bear. Further, I've already sprayed them haze gray which means I'd have to strip the paint from these very small, fragile parts.

Yes I havent soldered PE yet either but looking into it , seems alot of work to hold parts together that bear no load. But,, and a big but, CA is not the best way either from what I have experienced. Messy at times, frustrating most of the time especially for tiny parts. PE to plastic, great PE to tiny PE not so great. Does anyone have a better method I'm curious to know.

Tony

It's a shame to see use of bad language on that page. Talk about undercutting your professional identity.

It's a good article. The pieces I'm most concerned about are the 20mm guns, their splinter shields and the microscopic tripod bases. I just don't see CA holding this together. Also the 40mm quads also have multiple parts that will be troublesome with superglue. I wish there were extra parts where I could practice using different methods.

Ca will hold it together the problem I and I'm sure other have is just a small amount of CA is used, if it doesnt stick the first time you might end up with glue where you dont want it and on such small parts its near impossible to remove without destroying the part. Usually though a tiny bit of CA, hit it woth kicker and it sticks. but then you have the white crap the kicker leaves. No easy answerI think. I am looking foward to trying to solder PE also though, it doea make for neat and clean joints. As for practice, cut off some parts of the fret, make nice small micro parks and give it a shot with the solder, see what happens, I'd be curious to know how you do.

Tony

Jewelers solder very small things all the time, so it's doable. My challenge is how to hold the parts before the solder melts. I have a piece of some kind of strange ceramic I bought from MicroMark that is fire proof, but you can stick pins in it. I've done lots of precision soldering jobs this way, but none are remotely as small as those 20mms. I made some 1:48 bent wood chairs for a model tavern I built for the model railroad. I use TIX solder which is a low melting alloy that's very strong. You use a liquid flux that can be brushed on a very small area, and I another liquid that prevents solder from sticking, so you can be very precise. The solder rods are small to start with, but you can cut very tiny pieces which works for PE purposes. I just tried to upload a picture of this, but it didn't seem to be working. I've had that happen before where the loading indicator just keeps going and going. Any ideas what's happening there?

I have soldered P.E. successfully at all scales . It does require a fine touch and extremely fine heat adjustments on the iron .This takes trial and error and the other thing that works in the smaller sizes is a resistance soldering unit . I don,t know if you want to waste time with the battery powered one . The whole trick really , Is getting used to a way of doing it that works for you , that you are COMFORTABLE with and successful with . commodore4

Since I wrote this post, I have been soldering the 40mm quad mounts (Eduard) with decent success. I don't have a resistance unit, although I'd really like one. I'm using a Weller temperature controlled soldering station with the setting at three. I'm also using TIX solder with is a non-lead, very low melting point alloy with decent tensile strength. It has its own liquid flux and both are available at MicroMark.

I tried using CA and was very disappointed with the results especially when trying to get the plastic guns to stay put between the gun stands. I ended up actually drilling both and mounting the guns with 0.020" brass wire. It's finicky work, but the results are decent and the guns actually move.

I am very lucky. I received a complete 2nd set of Eduard PE when I asked them to replace some parts that broke during assembly. I've been making good use of the second set. In fact, I've been building the guns out of this set since the first set was primed and painted haze gray and that makes soldering even more challenging.

It's also very good that I have another set since the scrap rate is very high due mostly to parts de-soldering when soldering added parts. I try to manage the the heat closely, but unless the heat transfer is very fast, the whole part gets hot and parts start disconnecting. Once that happens it's almost impossible to get it back together correctly.

I'm doing a complete build thread on WorldAffairsBoard.com at http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/modele ... iling.html. It has many pictures following the whole soldering process. It also shows and talks about some of the screwups that occurred also.