31 replies to this topic

[slotcarone]

I'll play devil's advocate.

 

You do beautiful work, Mike, but your method, if the object is to heat the metal no more than necessary, is accomplished at an obvious penalty.

 

A - you sometimes have to reheat.

 

B - with less solder on your tip, you have less heat transfer. It's the same thing as having a slightly less hot iron, and the joint isn't "finished", quite as quickly.

Agree on both A and B Mike. I almost always reheat every joint usually adding more solder and putting acid on the underside to make sure the solder connects evenly. I find this works for me and makes for very strong joints that don't break in a crash. My method has nothing to do with not getting the parts hot though. I will even add extra solder to a chassis that I know is going to be raced by a newbie for extra strength.

[MSwiss]

I don't disagree the joints might be a tiny bit stronger, or certainly as strong.
 
And it probably doesn't make a difference on the car performs, lap time wise, especially using wire and brass, and racing at Retro speeds.
 
That said, I built an aluminum G7 chassis once, thinking I would make it less bendable, buy adding an additional rail in the vertical direction, to the existing outer ones.
 
IOW, it had an "L" profile.
 
By the time I got them soldered on, to my satisfaction, being aluminum, and creating a bigger mass as I went, I had softened the aluminum and the chassis, while handling real well, IMO, actually bent easier.

[dc-65x]

Hi Robert,

 

I don't know if these are still available but Keith Tanaka had a fantastic DVD of Mike Stuebe building a chassis. He is a master and had a zillion tips and techniques on soldering and chassis building.

[dc-65x]

...........Now  I'm not talking globs of excess here.I'm talking about that little bit that you can barely feel that tends to color the brass or steel.Or does everyone sand off the excess?

 

Here is the chassis I'm working on now. This picture was taken just after I finished soldering:

 

 

The chassis could just be scrubbed clean and would be fine. I, like you I believe, don't like the solder on the TOP of the tubes that has nothing to do with the strength of the joint.

 

I simply sand it off and polish the chassis with a Dremel tool carbon steel wire wheel like so:

 

 

If you're getting too much solder in the joint, try the Mike Steube DVD method of tacking the joint first with a small amount of solder on the tip of the iron. Then go back with more acid flux and a bit more solder (if needed) and solder the joint again.

 

Everyone else's results may be different but this works for me.......

[Pappy]

Beautiful! 

 

I always wondered how you got those beautiful solder joints.

[Robert BG]

Thanks,as for a solder sucker etc.I have a rework station with a sucker and hot air gun for electronics work. I actually thought about trying solder paste and putting it in a reflow oven I made from a toaster oven.But I've got no idea if that would be strong enough.

 

Generally I'll use some wick or old braid,to clean stuff up.But I am just trying to keep weight to a absolute min. So far the Sharpie trick really helped keep things from going where I dont want it.

[dc-65x]

If possible I try to leave the things I'm soldering "long" and drag the extra solder out of the joint and onto that extra length:
 

Everything soldered up using the jig for alignment:
 

 
The drop arm was left long. This allows the right amount of solder to create a nice fillet to stay in the joint and the excess to be dragged back (note the puddle of solder).
 

 
The excess plate is cut off and a nice solder joint is left:
 

 
The finished drop arm:
 

 
The chassis ready for the "floating pans":