Thread: Help choosing best metal wire for ease of solder

Tinned copper wire.

8 gauge solid tinned copper wire.. #2360 Solid Tinned Copper Wire

Ray

I don't think you would have a problem with getting the 3mm wire up to a brazing temperature. The small pencil burner on a primus handy man kit should be plenty. They run off a standard BBQ gas bottle.

Depending on how much you will be doing, the hand piece and hose can get a little heavy if you are doing it for hrs on end. The hose is not that flexible and you might find yourself wrestling with it.
Even the bernzomatic torches with disposable bottles work well but the flame is a lot bigger than the primus pencil.

I did a fair bit of that when I was 20. I was dating and Arts student and she really needed a hand as she was well behind on a major assignment. We were building French style corsets from standard galvanised wire and soft lead joins. It was fairly strong as there were a lot of joins and bends. The lead and flux work very easily but brazing the join would be far stronger!

I have not brazed SS so I cannot comment.

Actually, TIG welding sounds ideal for what you are doing. Super fast with much less heat distortion. It's an expensive piece of kit compared to a gas burner though.

Another point now that I remember, I needed 4 hands when I was making them. One hand on the Gas, one on the filler rod and the other two hands holding the two parts. I did build a few jigs to hold the two parts (wire) but I totally forget how I solved that.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Ben- The corset sounds like a cool project!
When I said I'd like to solder myself, i was imagining more of the basic handheld soldering iron, not any sort of welding. The cage will be tiny (10cm high) and difficult to get to the soldering points with a larger flame/gun. I'm open to it if its the only option though.
I guess my question was aimed more at- best choice of metal (ideally stainless steel) and if normal or 'silver' solder and some flux would do the trick, or if theres a specific flux or solder I would need.

I intend on making a little holder like you mentioned to ease the soldering process as it sounds cool, that would be my next step.

Originally Posted by lish

Thanks for the replies guys!

Ben- The corset sounds like a cool project!
When I said I'd like to solder myself, i was imagining more of the basic handheld soldering iron, not any sort of welding. The cage will be tiny (10cm high) and difficult to get to the soldering points with a larger flame/gun. I'm open to it if its the only option though.
I guess my question was aimed more at- best choice of metal (ideally stainless steel) and if normal or 'silver' solder and some flux would do the trick, or if theres a specific flux or solder I would need.

I intend on making a little holder like you mentioned to ease the soldering process as it sounds cool, that would be my next step.

Can you powder coat over lead solder ?

Rob

Have you thought about cross wire welding with a small spot welder?

Michael

Perhaps using normal copper coated tig filler wire might be an option.
I've never tried soldering it but I reckon the copper coating would help the solder flow evenly and it has the advantage of already being straight.
Soldering 3mm wire of any type with a normal electronics type iron might be a bit optimistic so you will need to get a larger iron like the type used for lead lighting or perhaps use 1.2mm wire instead.
When you have it all together you could simply dip it in an acid bath (bakers soldering fluid in a bucket) for a few minutes to etch off the remaining exposed copper coating, then soak it in a bi-carb solution afterwards to neutralize the acid.
I don’t know if powder coating over lead/tin solder is a problem or not but if so you always use a spray enamel like Killrust etc.
Cheers,
Greg.

I suppose the biggest problem with this type of exercise (birdcage) is that as you lead solder one spot, it's likely that other joints nearby will remelt and fall apart.

Particularly with copper wire.

Yellow tip bronze (or especially hard bronze) should avoid this happening as you need localised heat for it to work.

But then you have the flux cleaning off problem after.

Glad your doing it and not me

Rob

Cool thanks for the replies guys.
A few different ideas- I'll look into them all.
Cheers!