Photo etch

[bluenose2]

Hi Bluenose here. I would like some advice on working with photo etch. I haven't worked with this much etch before. I purchased the full photo etch kit from DJ Parkins for my Revell Snowberry. Should I temper a full sheet or should this be done with each individual piece? How small a piece can be heat worked before it gets blown away? Also the after market supplied railings are Brittania metal which is very flexible. I recently completed the 1/72 scale St. Roch by Billings. All the railings were brass and were very strong. Any advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

[bluenose2]

When soldering is it better to use a soldering iron or one of the small hand held butane torches?

[JPett]

Ahoy Bluenose  

 

I have never had any real luck soldering PE with either a torch or iron. The entire surface conducts heat making it very difficult to control the flow of the solder. 

 

I did attend a conference where a demo using resistance soldering was shown: This works  

 

https://www.americanbeautytools.com/

[Keith_W]

I suggest you view this thread and watch the video. It is VERY helpful.

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/5471-new-video-on-basic-soldering-for-scale-models/

[dgbot]

That machine is the bomb.  A couple of club members own them and sing nothing but praises.  One them was brought to a club meeting a couple of times and we all were able to use it.  Soldering was never so easy or so fast.  Plus no heat sinks.  And being able to make joints side by side with out any trouble.

If I did a lot of soldering it would be a great investment.

David B

[bear]

Hi

 

I have the DJ Parkins PE sets for my Flower Class Corvette build also.

 

After spending the amount on the PE sets,do yourself a favor by getting a resistance soldering outfit. You will need it with the large brass sections that you will be soldering to. Just using an iron will not work out very well for you. You need the direct area heating that the resistance soldering will provide you.

 

As to annealing the PE. only anneal what you must have to. It's better to leave the brass as hard as you can,so that it is not easy to bend after you have it in place. Get a good PE bender setup,that will get you past 99% of the bends that you would  need to anneal without one.

 

I have been working off and on my Corvette for 12 years now. I have about 40 % of it completed. Adding rivets to all of the hull plates took most of the time.

 

Play around with soldering brass BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT the PE ofr the kit. Become adept at small parts being soldered to large ones and use different melting point solder where you have multiple parts being soldered in a small area. Starting with the largest with the highest melting point first,then reduce the heat on the iron to just melt the next lower melting point solder. Again practice this before doing the kit parts.

 

You have spent too much on these PE sets to not take your time. Be upset when practicing,not when you are working on the kit PE. I was there before I purchased my resistance soldering unit. I have soldering irons that now just gather dust,while my resistance unit gets the workout.

 

Keith