scudderfish
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| posted on 7/7/10 at 01:11 PM |
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Joining brass and steel
I want to fix a steel washer to a brass fitting. What's the best way? Soldering? JB Weld? It doesn't have to take any load, but it does
need to be contiguous.
Regards,
Dave
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richardlee237
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| posted on 7/7/10 at 01:29 PM |
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Braze or silver solder.
Ensure you get the steel cherry red before heating the brass.
Quote Lord Kelvin
“Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can be tolerated only in race horses and women.”
Quote Richard Lee
"and cars"
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Mal
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| posted on 7/7/10 at 02:54 PM |
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You could also soft solder it
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coozer
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| posted on 7/7/10 at 03:00 PM |
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contiguous adj. Sharing an edge or boundary; touching. Neighboring; adjacent. Connecting without a break
Never to old to learn eh?
1972 V8 Jago
1980 Z750
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Badger_McLetcher
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| posted on 7/7/10 at 03:43 PM |
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Yeah brazing or silver solder would be my choice. I have a very dim view of JB weld these days.
If disfunction is a function, then I must be some kind of genius.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 7/7/10 at 04:42 PM |
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Silver solder
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 7/7/10 at 06:27 PM |
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One or two things to consider with silver solder:
1. You're going to have to get the parts to be joined up to red-orange hot - not good if you have anything else attached to the pieces.
2. To get them to this temperature you'll probably have to make some form of makeshift hearth (I use a couple of cement blocks) and use a decent
blowtorch to heat the pieces up quickly, otherwise the flux will fail.
3. You'll have to devise some means of holding the pieces together while they're heated - can be tough.
4. You'll need to get some silver solder (getting quite expensive these days for what is, basically, a length of brass-coloured wire!) and the
correct flux.
5. Be prepared for some quite tough cleaning after the job's finished - the flux turns into something like glass when it's heated.
It'll have to be chipped off, then emery cloth. Don't use acid - it makes things rust unless you're REALLY good at getting rid of
it afterwards.
So - solver soldering is a great technique for joining brass and steel - but it takes some practice to make a good joint at the first attempt. I
speak from experience - my model steam train has hundreds of silver-soldered joints, including every joint on the 40-lb copper boiler!
If you're talking about a one-off job, I'd try to make a mechanically strong joint in some way, then lock it together with one of the
harder forms of soft solder, e.g. plumber's solder. You'll still need the right flux, but both are reasonably cheap from Wickes.
Don't use the cored solder used for electronics - it's designed to melt at a low temperature rather than for mechanical strength.
Plumber's solder melts at a few hundred degrees, so the metal is barely affected by heat and is really easy to clean afterwards.
(with apologies for the long post...  )
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scudderfish
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| posted on 7/7/10 at 06:41 PM |
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Thanks for the info, off to Wickes tomorrow then
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