At 12:00 AM 3/15/01 -0800, you wrote:
>Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 07:13:20 -0600
>From: Chris wolcott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Soldering Question
>
>heat the work (Copper-Brass) until it glowed. Is this normal? I'm
>concerned that I'm going to melt something besides the solder doing
>this.
Chris,
Peter and Art have covered this nicely, although depending upon the
flow temp of the silver solder you use you may expect to have to bring the
material to dull red, but certainly not bright by any means. Usually the
behavior of the flux is the key to when it's time to apply the solder and
for the solder I use (Harris Safety-Silv 45) this is just as the flux turns
watery clear and just as some color (red) begins to appear in subdued light.
I will take this opportunity however to mention that brass is not a
recommended material for use as a structural part of a boiler, including
bushings.
>Also, if I try to solder something to a piece that already has something
>soldered to it, will I not loosen the bond there trying to add the new
>piece?
Most silver solders take considerably more temperature to re-melt than
to melt initially (due to some metalurgical mumbo-jumbo having to do with
change of state and chemical bonding with the base metals). But if silver
soldering is carried out in the normal way, and you've done your homework
and it behaves the way it's supposed to, you can solder very near to an
existing silver soldered joint and not have to be concerned about it coming
apart. I would go into this further but I have an article which deals with
this subject in depth appearing in the 3rd issue of Small Scale Steam
Magazine so under the circumstances I shouldn't trot all that out here.
Also, in some quarters my threaded-rod bush-straigtening technique,
as described by Art, might be greeted with a chorus of sniffs and harrumphs
of self-righteous purism, :-) but it should be stataed that this
technique shall only be used to make that last weensy little adjustment to
get those boilertop fittings in dead-on alignment (if dead-on alignment
means anything). This practice would be akin to denting the sides of the
boiler barrel to clear drivers; not the way you'd like to have it, but it
works just the same. One of the things I like about small scale live steam
is how flexible and forgiving our little systems are in most areas. But
then I guess some folks, like those with chronic burner problems, might
disagree.
Regards,
Harry Wade
Nashville, Tn
