Fast Tracks

I tried the Am. Beauty unit to "set" the turnout to the Quicksticks. It worked excellently and quickly, without the problem of getting tinning solder from an iron tip to the rail. After coating the Quickstick and the bottom of the railbase with Pliobond and letting it dry, I positioned it and set the resistance unit to 30% (250 Watt system), then I placed the tweezer tips on the rail above each wooden tie. I triggered the unit on for about 1.5 seconds per location, hitting every wood tie/rail joint on the Quickstick and held pressure on it for a couple more seconds. The time to use the resistance soldering unit to set the turnout to the Quickstick was less than 10 minutes (first one). Should get quicker with experience. The only place you do not want to use the heat to set rail to wood is the frog point. It wil come apart.

Anyone else have other uses for the resistance soldering unit? If so, I would like to know what they are.

Thanks

I have not tried it, but I have talked to people who have used their resistance unit for building/repairing brass locos and rolling stock. The word I hear is that it enables you to do things that are nearly impossible with a standard iron tip type unit.
If you're in the market for a resistance unit, you might try eBay--I got mine for about $80, although it is an off brand.
Good luck

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Stumper

Just wanted to say that anyone with a little kitbashing experiece could probably build their own resistance soldering unit. There are may "hits" on the internet that give very good instructions. I was fortunate enough to have a friend that has an automotive electronics business and I was able to retrreive the transformer from a defunct batter charger/booster. The main expense was buying a 1500 watt dimmer switch which cost me approximately $75 Cdn. Other than that the internet instructions were easy to follow and very little cost was involved. Most of the wire etc. can be srounged. Good Luck. Roy