beauvine wrote:

Hi, I do soldering associated with my stained-glass work. What I'm
wondering is, what's the difference between soldering and welding,
especially
in terms of strength...? I'd like to make some stained-glass-topped metal
tables, but what relatively-little I've seen about welding makes it seem
super-expensive, dangerous, and generally daunting.

The difference is in welding, the parent metal actually melts, fusing the
two pieces of metal (and filler) into effectively one piece of the same kind
of metal - I've read that if done right, the weld can actually be stronger
than the parent metal itself.

Soldering is more like gluing: the solder merely wets the metals, which,
of course, need to be hot enough to melt the solder, and they form a thin
layer of alloy at the interface. A solder joint could theoretically be
broken with your bare hands; the solder is only tin and lead, although I've
heard that some silver-bearing solders can be quite strong.

I'd say there's at least an order of magnitude difference in the strength
of the joint, if not more; and soldering takes place at hundreds of degrees,
welding happens at thousands of degrees. I'd think it's safe to say that
the applications are generally very different. (You wouldn't solder a
cracked Franklin stove, for example, or try to weld a leaky car radiator.)

Hope This Helps!
Rich