In article , Bob
La Londe wrote:

In another group I read joining two round pieces of stainless wire often
comes up in conversation. End to end, side by side, and end to side are all
done or desired from time to time. The wire sizes range from 0.03" to 0.06"
give or take. I would be curious what approach some of you guys might take
to do these processes quickly and efficiently.

Mostly the join would be of the same size wire to itself, but occassionally
it might be joining a lighter wire to a heavier wire. The resulting joint
needs to be corrosion resistant, but not to an extreme. It is not exposed to
strong acids. Hard or sal****er at worst. Life in use does not need to be
infinite, but over a lifetime it might see several hundred hours of immersion
with thousands of dunking cycles.

If the resulting joint is 75% as strong as the original wire or better that
would probably be satisfactory. The wire is most likely a 308-316 spring
wire, but others might be used.

I recall a fellow who made birdcages commented on my thread about
choosing a stainless alloy that would not rust after being heated to a
red heat. The thread was "Making double-prong skewers" in September
2010.

The birdcages were custom-made and large. His process was to spotweld
the 316L stainless steel wire (I was using 0.125" diameter and he was
using at least that thickness), clean the joint to remove fire scale,
and then silver braze the spotwelded area. This was a bit stronger,
looked good, and protected the birds' feet.


Joe Gwinn