A guest post from Nathaniel Erg:
"I've been invited to write about a little something I am working on at the moment, and the trials and tribulations that I am currently experiencing. All of my own making, might I add! The story begins with the purchase of an Rp wagon kit in 3/16ths (second hand, of course! Those who know me well will fail to be surprised).
The trials and tribulations spoken of earlier are only a recent occurrence. The issue was caused by being introduced to the simplicity of soldering Pewter and White Metal kits using solder of a lower melting point and a temperature controlled iron. Luckily, the kit had only proceeded to the stage of a rolling chassis (as above), held together by the devils mucus, superglue. I am sure that Superglue in its many varieties has a part to play in kit construction, but after seeing the ease with which a wagon top flies together with solder (an La2, By the way), I can only now advocate superglue for tacking on details before they are securely held with epoxy when tackling these sorts of kits.
The first job was to effect the breaking down of the assembled chassis. Now, common wisdom advocates the use of acetone to act as a solvent against the glue; a popular choice in nail polish remover. However, Mrs Erg refuses to have major multinational cosmetics in the house, and the only time I can remember seeing her with painted toenails was when, barefooted, she got a little over-exuberant with the fence stain. So obviously that wasn’t an option. As with all problems of this nature, the solution was...The Interweb! It seems that superglue becomes very brittle when subjected to cold temperatures, so it was only a matter of nestling the chassis into the ice box between next Sundays frozen roast and a packet of McCains peas. After a few hours, the chassis very easily fell apart. Some cleanup is still needed, as the superglue is tenacious stuff and is want to resist all devices known to man short of a diamond tipped scraper, gelignite, or a Noel Coward record. Suffice it to say the remnants are still causing me grief!
The next obvious step was to prepare the brass floor to allow it to have the pewter parts so recently torn from it reattached. Needless to say, you have to tin the brass first, and luckily my good friend Mr "Cabbage" Stokes (From up the valley) had armed me with just the stuff; a solder paste. Magical stuff this. I merely wiped it on sparingly with a rag, then left the wagon floor on the long suffering Mrs Ergs stovetop (luckily she had gone to bed moments previously). Within seconds, the whole brass floor went like molten quicksilver, and the job was done.
Next step was to begin reattaching the aforementioned pewter parts, and this is where the trials and tribulations really began. Mr Stokes had made me aware of being able to run a temperature controlled iron off a simple model railway controller. What luck!, I thought, None of these expensive European high priced soldering stations need be entertained at all...I could achieve it all for a tenner! A 12v iron was duly purchased from Dick the Trickster and plugged into the power pack.....and then it happened. Or rather, it didn’t. What I had failed to realise was that most small packs of this nature have a cut-out that stops the pack from coming under too much strain, such as that provided by some philistine plugging a soldering iron into it. I had just enough time to realise the iron was hot, align the parts, slop on some flux, go to pickup some solder on the iron tip.....and then realise the iron was cool again. Resetting the power pack was but the work of a moment while prayers were offered to several non western deities that maybe things could last longer this time around, which they invariably didn’t. After an hours work, I had one poorly attached headstock. At this rate it could be a starter for the 2012 convention.
Mr Stokes came to the rescue yet again, and kindly offered to lend me his own home-made temperature controller and iron (above) while he was down in the South Island Highlands rewiring a hydro electric Dam. Once he returned, he built me a better power pack.....and with any luck, that should make an interesting topic for a future posting, "Grow your own Temperature Controlled Soldering station from common household items".
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