DCC Loco Conversions - 9 - Tools & Materials

Apart from the necessary collection of suitable screwdrivers, pliers and tweezers to taste I consider the following to be essential. Some items are readily available from DIY and model suppliers but some are more restricted for which I give links to suppliers websites in the reference section at the end of this article.

Soldering Irons

Temperature controlled soldering iron 60W, that sounds high but being temperature controlled it allows for fast warm up with selectable temperatures. A variety of bit styles and diameters are available. The 60W model has been superseded by a 75W version (Ref 9.1), these soldering stations appear to be generic and badged by suppliers so are probably available elsewhere just as the 60W was also available at Maplins many years ago.

Simple 25W soldering iron, I use an old Antex, built to last, for the occasional heavy job.
Mesh type bit cleaner, typically coiled brass strip in a pot, cleans bit without cooling effect of using a wet pad.

Soldering Materials

60/40 tin/lead solder, 22 swg suits most jobs, much easier to use than lead free, I have not used lead free but it does appear to be more difficult to apply and get a sound joint.

Non-corrosive liquid flux for tarnished wires and terminals.
DCC Concepts DCS-SFNC Sapphire No Clean Flux Liquid (Ref 9.3), great stuff, also used it for DCC droppers and power bus connections throughout, applied with a brush 50ml goes a long way.



General Tools

Multi-meter.
Scalpel for part of the process of stripping PTFE insulation.
400 grit finishing paper.
Fine wire cutters e.g. Xuron ultra flush cutting micro shear PXU0410A
Good quality wire strippers for PVC wire, e.g RS 382-2847
Budget wire strippers okay for 10/0.1 and larger, but brutal on decoder PVC wires

RS, Radio Spares (Ref 9.2)



A small hairdryer for use with heatshrink sleeving, I use a cheap 1200W dryer with a rectangular nozzle. Do not be tempted to use a DIY heat gun intended only for paint stripping, they are far too hot and will melt and burn your wires and loco.

Some aluminium kitchen foil to protect parts of the model behind the sleeving being shrunk with the hair dryer. It can also be used to reflect the hot air to the far side of the sleeving for quicker shrinking.

Sleeving

Sleeving of PVC or PTFE (preferred) for insulating brush arm spring wires typically on Tri-ang (e.g. X04 and power bogies), British Trix and some Hornby Dublo motors. Alternatively unshrunk heatshrink sleeving or stripped outer from insulated wire could be used.

Heat shrink sleeving, for sealing wire joints and providing strain relief, even if the quantities below are far more than you need at least they can be looked at for their specification and sourced in smaller quantities from model shops and eBay.

Heat shrink sleeving, black, 1.6mm, heat shrink 2:1 black 25m reel e.g Rapid Online 03-0340.

Heat shrink sleeving, black, 2.4mm, heat shrink 2:1 black 25m reel e.g Rapid Online 03-0341.

Rapid Online Ref 9.4.

Heatshrink sleeving is available in other colours but it is really annoying when a brightly coloured sleeve becomes obvious in a loco cab, by the wheels or through a diesel loco window.



Wire

General purpose insulated wire PVC, black 10/0.1 (number of strands/cross-sectional area per strand), black is easier to hide when applied to diesel bogie pickups.

Tinned copper wire 24SWG for making connections to split chassis parts.

Fine PVC insulated multistrand wire is available from model shops for decoder wiring, but if you can stretch your flexible friend to use PTFE insulated wire it is a much better choice and certainly if you intend to convert 20 or more locos.

Multistrand PTFE insulated wire for general wiring in confined spaces, is the best, as it has a very tough and thin insulation layer and the soldering iron will not melt it. Colours red, black, orange and grey (slate) suffice for motor control. The only downside is that stripping the insulation has to be done quite differently to PVC and few wire stripping tools can do it. I will cover this in techniques of Loco Conversions 10.

Alpha Wire 5851 RD005 Red 30AWG 7/38 TYPE E Hu Wire Teflon (100 ft) Rapid Online 01-5350.
Alpha Wire 5851 BK005 Black 30AWG 7/38 TYPE E Hu Wire Teflon (100 ft) Rapid Online 01-5349
Alpha Wire 5851 OR005 Orange 30AWG 7/38 TYPE E Hu Wire Teflon (100 ft) Rapid Online 01-5355
Alpha Wire 5851 SL005 Slate 30AWG 7/38 TYPE E Hu Wire Teflon (100 ft) Rapid Online 01-5356

For any other colours which is rare I use the black with coloured heat shrink bands attached which can be easily bought in resistor colour code sets online.


Very fine multistrand PTFE insulated wire for tight spaces and links between locos and tenders, PTFE is by far the best in my book, as it's abrasion resistance is high.

SPC00441A002 25M WIRE, 25M, 7/0.12MM2, COPPER, BLACK, Farnell 1183978.

Farnell (Ref 9.5)

Tape

General masking tape, 20-25mm wide, as extra hands.

Black Duck Tape or similar for extra insulation inside metal loco bodies.

Kapton tape, very thin, heat resistant, useful for sticking wires out of harms way and insulating surfaces effectively.

Antistat 053-0002 Kapton Tape - Standard 12mm x 33m Rapid Online 87-9322




Next: Before I get on with the conversions I'll outline my general approach and techniques.

Jim

Discussion on any content is always

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References.

9.1 Circuit Specialists Europe

Although the 60W version is no longer available the 75W successor is.
https://www.circuitspecialists.eu/c...rolled-solder-station-with-75w-soldering-iron

9.2 RS (Radio Spares)

A long standing industry source of electrical and electronic items:-
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/

9.3 DCC Concepts Sapphire No Clean Flux

An excellent easy to use flux.
https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/sapphire-no-clean-flux-50ml/

9.4 Rapid Online

A very good source of items for the hobbyist:-
https://www.rapidonline.com/

9.5 Farnell UK

Another long standing industry source:-
https://uk.farnell.com/




Hornby Dublo 8F