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Your local hobby shop might have a KS metals display that has copper rod in 1/16, 3/32 or 1/8 ??Mark
stainless steel is not suitable for boiler work
Quote from: ChuckKey on May 25, 2020, 05:17:19 PMstainless steel is not suitable for boiler workThis is true for every grade of stainless steel with the exception of duplex stainless steel. See:http://www.wirralmodelengineeringsociety.co.uk/Articles/DuplexSteelBoiler.pdfhttp://www.smex.net.au/Store/Store_AALS-Codes.phpCheers Dan
Surprisingly, stainless steel is not suitable for boiler work, because of corrosion problems.
Over here copper rod is available on Fleabay. Are you trying to buy imperial sizes? Try quoting metric sizes.Jo
What about bronze welding (brazing) rod? Your local welding shop should have some as small as 3mm.
Rather than longitudenal stays, could also do ribs on the inside of the endcaps made from copper sheet stock and silver soldered inside the caps. Bit fussier to fit than stays but not bad.
Thats where the different grades of silver solder come in handy - do the inside parts with the 'hard' grade, then the final assembly with the 'easy' grade which takes a lower temperature. I usually put a small brass screw into the rib from the outside just in case too!The says will work fine, just throwing out another option.