On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 22:18:02 +0000, oldnverygrey.
wrote:
Am making flowers. Used aluminum mesh and galvanized screws and nuts and
want to put to a rod of galvanized steel. Can I solder. I have used a
glue or have just used wire to hold in place. Am elderly and do not have
access to welding, so thought of soldering, these are decorative and are
put in pots outdoors. Oldnverygrey..
You can solder to galvanized steel pretty easily. Get some of the
paste plumbing flux and plumbing solder. You can use the water based
plumbing solder flux but it is not as easy. The old paste flux works
very well and is pretty forgiving of being kept hot too long. You will
need to wash off the flux after soldering or it will corrode the area
and any steel close by. If you haven't soldered much here are some
tips:
1) Make sure the area to be soldered is clean. Free from any dirt,
oxidation, and grease or oil.
2) Heat the area quickly. The longer it takes to heat the area the
more it will oxidize.
3)The solder follows the heat. This means that the solder needs to be
applied away from where flame is touching the work as it will be drawn
toward the flame.
4)Don't put the flame directly on the solder.
5)Sometimes, with areas that are large and need to be soldered
together it is better to tin each area with solder and then sweat the
parts together.
6) It is very important to remember how flux works and what it does.
Aggresive flux cleans the metals to be soldered and absorbs oxygen
during soldering. This oxygen absorption keeps the metals from
oxidizing. Mild flux just absorbs oxygen and doesn't really clean
much, if any. It is the oxygen being absorbed during the soldering
that is most important and why the soldering needs to be done fast. If
it takes too long to heat the work the flux will absorb all the oxygen
it can and then quit working. This means the metal will oxidize and
the solder won't stick. And putting on more flux won't help. All the
old flux must be removed and new flux applied before trying to solder
again. I have seen more people fail at soldering because they don't
heat the work fast enough, don't have the work clean, or keep the work
hot too long than for any other reasons.
Good luck at you soldering. If you follow the rules above you will get
good solder joints.
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