Help! > Hints, Tips & Tricks
(Silver) soldering
Kenny:
Only soldering I have experience with is electronics component soldering. Did some gas welding back in school and that's a life time ago so I have a few, hopefully not too stupid, questions:
How is gas welding different from hard silver soldering? Seems very similar to me. A gas and a flame :)
Second, can only silver solder be used? I have seen things like some brass or phosphor bronze. Can that be used?
Only silver solder wire/sticks I have found around here are the flux coated ones. Are they ok too? Better/worse than bare wire?
I'm guessing one could just remove the flux coating and use separate flux?
Ken
uuu:
Welding usually refers to a technique where the base metal is melted. And can involve the introduction of additional material to fuse into the melt.
With soldering - it's at a lower temperature - the base metal does not melt, the melted solder amalgamates with the base metal which remains solid.
I've only ever used bare sliver solder wire and a separate flux. I use a big propane torch for heating - oxygen is not required to get to the temperature required.
You can use brass wire - the term brazing particularly refers to this - although the term can also be applied to soldering. But it's at a higher temperature than silver soldering - still not melting the base material.
Wilf
Sanjay F:
Hi Kenny
I only just started to cut my teeth on silver soldering recently and had to buy the equipment and materials. There are a couple of videos which I was forwarded by Jason when I was doing a build which were particularly useful (you can also see the errors I made :) ):
https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,12095.30.html
I'm no expert, but am slowly finding my way and becoming more confident the more I do - good luck, with it.....
crueby:
And the term silver solder is one that is a bit vague. There are soft solders with a tiny bit of silver that the manufacturers call silver solder. The main use of the term is for hard solders with around 40 to 60 percent silver, melting temperatures above 1000F.
The coated rods are not used much for small model work, thats more a convenience thing for large work. Better for model work is the paste flux, often sold as powder you add water to, that you spread on the joint before heating. That prevents scale from forming as you heat. Silver solder comes in many forms, I like the fine wire that can be cut and laid on the seam as well as added in by hand after heating.
As you say, some sort of gas and flame to heat. Usually a propane or butane flame, oxy acetaline is too hot for brass parts unless you are experienced with it. Silver soldering is a lot like brazing, and there are several alloys of the solder in the jewelry world to match colors of the parts being joined.
rklopp:
Aside from absolute cleanliness and liberal fluxing, I've learned a few helpful practices:
* Make the parts melt the silver "solder." Avoid heating the silver solder directly with the torch, whether solder is pre-placed or fed by hand.
* You really need red heat.
* Paint White-Out correction fluid on the parts to make a neat border for the solder. (This is my most useful learning for neatness.)
* Have some sort of acid pickle ready. I use 1 part muriatic acid swimming pool acid added to 10 parts water. I understand some use citric acid from home-brewing suppliers or the pharmacy. Pickling saves a lot of hand work with ScotchBrite or abrasive paper. Do not put hot parts in acid. Wear appropriate PPE.
* Don't try to solder a complex assembly all in one shot. Go step by step and pickle in between.
* Make sure a joint won't slip out of place while being heated.
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