cleaning brass

[webenda]

This crowd knows what they are doing, so this is for us who are learning from these posts. I did not know...
Not all Indium solders contain a low melting alloy of indium, so do your homework prior to purchase. For example:

[Tom Dempsey]

I acquired a box of about fifty or so brass TT Scale truck frames as part of a bulk purchase. I gave a handful of them a bath for about a hour or so in Vinegar, washed them in dishsoap and hot water, dried them with a hot air gun designed for heatshrink application set on low (probably about a medium setting on a drug store hair dryer), and the paint adhered very well despite my attempts to "make it fail".

[bob turner]

I did not know importa were being done with lower temperature solder. I am going to guess that MG/USH are stuck together with tin/lead, which has an eutectic point of 361 degrees F.

I use 60/40, which melts at 370, and has a slight plastic state. It does everything I want. I have used tin/silver, but, while stronger, it is more brittle. Some use high temperature silver solder, which cannot be used without making brass go dead-soft, not a desirable feature in a model train.

I know nothing about dishwashers.

[webenda]

Some use high temperature silver solder, which cannot be used without making brass go dead-soft, not a desirable feature in a model train.

Thank you for that. I never considered some solders require temperatures near dull red, same temperature I anneal copper gaskets at. Of course brass would go soft at those temperatures.

[bob turner]

And usually warp. I have repaired Lobaugh frames and cylinders with the 1100 degree stuff, but they are already annealed. I also did one boiler with 1100 degree silver solder. I will get a photo.

Al Ellis ran Lobaugh in the early 1950s, and was convinced that, to bend brass, it had to be annealed. So all of the Challenger tender sides and Greenbrier cabs are dead- soft. They usually look like crap. I just replace them with .020 HH.

[bob turner]

This one - boiler is 1/8" thick copper, stuck together with 1100 degree silver solder. cylinders and main frame were hogged out of solid brass.

It is an example of a 1/4" scale or 17/64" scale model. Slightly larger, and if you consider it a GS-2 it is close to 17/64. The big difference between GS-2 and 3 is driver size.



Tender trucks nickel silver, from my patterns. Don't have the heart to paint them.

[bob turner]

Soft photo-etched tender on left, my .020 sides on right.

[webenda]

Boiler doesn't look warped.

Both tenders look great, although the one on right has the pipe running along the frame making the one on the left look naked.

[aww]

Great rivets

[bob turner]

Thanks. You can't see the distortion on the black one? It will get pipes some day.

[webenda]

Above the 5th wheel of the centipede? Insignificant from my 3-rail point of view. (Other opinions may differ.)

[bob turner]

How about above and slightly aft of the front truck kingpin? It ripples all the way, as do most of them. They are photo etched, and have a trust plate etched in.

[webenda]

I must have the 3-rail blindness, can't see it even when I enlarge your photo.

Ripple--what ripple? I don't see no stinking ripple.

Bobs Challenger Tender Ripple.jpg (380.39 KiB) Viewed 6386 times

[bob turner]

You do have blindness, but not the three rail kind. The average 3-rail scale hobbyist would go nuts with this one - wavy sides, sand-cast unsprung trucks, no depleting coal pile, no illuminated markers - it is we 2-railers who overlook stuff.

That enlargement waves at you. You could surf on that one just above the tool box.

[Wolf]

You do have blindness, but not the three rail kind. The average 3-rail scale hobbyist would go nuts with this one - wavy sides, sand-cast unsprung trucks, no depleting coal pile, no illuminated markers - it is we 2-railers who overlook stuff.

That enlargement waves at you. You could surf on that one just above the tool box.

Maybe a photograph shot at an angle would show the "surfing waves" more clearly than a dead-on
broadside view?

The 3-Rail contingent's use of (red) marker lights everywhere drives a retired railroader crazy (although some
of my friends may claim it's only a short putt!)....how is one supposed to determine where the end of the
train is? And don't even get me started on what they are doing with the classification lights!!