Best Resistance Soldering Set Up for Photo-Etch?
I’ve seen kits listed in Micro-Mark but otherwise am unfamiliar with resistance soldering.
Thoughts & Comments appreciated.
Thank you
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I’ve seen the Micro-Mark setup in action at a club meeting and it hits it out of the park. Didn’t get to use it myself but if you know what you’re doing I’d highly recommend it.
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It is important to get the setting for the electrical current tuned to the material being soldered.
Too weak current and nothing happens,
too strong and there will be a hole instead of a soldered joint.
Tune the current settings on scrap pieces before burning up the actual parts.
Whatever set you buy needs to have some way to adjust the current.
Edit 1: Had a quick look at the sets offered by Micro-Mark.
I would not buy the cheapest set (very limited current regulation, low vs high).
The others all have a regulator.
You will probably want to have both tweezers and points. Maybe they have a set with
both tools, otherwise the tools are sold separately.
Tweezers: Hold the smaller part with the tweezers, press the part against the larger part. Press the pedal, let cool, open the tweezers. Two “flat” parts can be soldered to each other by holding both in the tweezers and pushing the pedal.
Point: When parts can be placed on top of each other and be help in place by some other means.
For instance a mesh inside a frame. Hold in position somehow. Press point againts the wanted solder point and press pedal.
Wattage: I think 100 W will be plenty sufficient. The Watts don’t need to heat so much material since the current through the contact point will heat the material and solder locally in that point.
On the other hand, if the 250 W is not too much more expensive then why take the risk of ever ending up in a situation where the Wattage is insufficient.
Edit 2: I have seen this type of tool in use at the model railroad club I used to frequent.
I can only add to what Matt @SSGToms writes: They are “da sh!t” and seriously “kick a$$” when it comes to soldering.
Preparing the parts with solder will take some time, alternatively use some “liquid solder-flux” combination if such a beast exists. Another possibility could be solder paste but the most reliable way is to “tin” the mating surfaces with solder first.
The solder material has to come from somewhere and it will definitely not come from a solder wire held next to the joint. The heat is generated by the resistance in the contact surfaces between the two parts and the solder needs to be there when the heat comes.
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This is a whole other arena in modeling that does not get much attention. There are not many resources on soldering PE. There are a ton on modeling and weathering. I am devoid of enough knowledge or experience to pull of soldering PE.
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