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..

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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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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..
Whoops,
I just re-read your message and see that you want to solder aluminum
mesh to the galv. It can be done the way I described above but a
little more work is needed. First of all you should probably buy some
of the solder they make for aluminum. Even if you don't though you can
still use lead free plumbing solder to solder the aluminum. I think
the old leaded stuff will work too but I'm not sure. Anyway, they sell
at good hardware stores little stainless steel brushes that resemble
toothbrushes. Get youself a couple of these. Now comes the tough part
because of the mesh. If using the aluminum solder sticks first clean
the mesh really well. In fact, clean the mesh really well no matter
how you try to solder it. Then scrub the dry aluminum with the
stainless brush. Now heat the mesh with a torch and as it gets hot
pull the flame away and rub the solder stick on the mesh. When it is
hot enough the solder will start to rub off of the stick and start to
stick to the aluminum mesh. You need to rub pretty hard because you
need to rub through the oxide coating on the aluminum. Once the solder
starts to stick keep rubbing over a larger and larger area until you
have the solder where you want it. If the metal cools too much pull
the solder away and apply more heat. You can alternate between heating
and applying solder. Once you have the mesh tinned go ahead and tin
the galvanized steel with the aluminum solder and then sweat the
tinned pieces together. To help the solder stick to the aluminum you
may need to brush the aluminum through the solder. This is pretty
easy. Once you get a blob of solder to stick to the aluminum a little
just push the stainless brush through the molten solder and scrub the
aluminum. This will remove the oxide layer and let the solder stick to
the aluminum. You can also use a similar technique by fluxing the
aluminum with paste flux and then pushing the brush through the flux
and scrubbing the aluminum. Then use lead free plumbing solder to tin
the aluminum. You may need to scrub the mesh through the plumbing
solder to make it stick, just like with the aluminum solder sticks. To
practice technique you should try getting the solder to stick to some
aluminum sheet first. Just for fun I tried soldering aluminum with
lead free plumbing solder and no flux a few months ago. Using the
stainless brush I was able to get the solder to stick well but it did
take some practice and was easier using flux.
Eric

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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..

In the 1980's Eutectic-Castolin sold solders for aluminum. Their website
is at http://www.castolin.com/, a very quick look revealed no aluminum
joining alloys. Still, a phone call to one of their distributors might
prove enlightening.

Hope this helps,

bob prohaska

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..


I've seen sites that sold "aluminum solder" and I believe the subject
was discussed here some time ago, so the material is available.
whether it sticks aluminum to galvanized I don't know.

Googling "aluminum solder" returns some 7.800,000 hits :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

"oldnverygrey." wrote in
message roups.com...
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..
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http://www.polytechforum.com/metalwo...od-593252-.htm
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This might work.....

http://www.laco.com/aluminum-flux-paste/

On 2/15/2014 6:40 PM, wrote:
just what you need to know

Depending upon the gauge of the wire in your mesh, it's possible to melt
the aluminum even with a propane torch. So practice first. In fact,
TRY to melt the aluminum, just to see the point at which it happens.

Bob

On Saturday, February 15, 2014 2:18:02 PM UTC-8, 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.

Yes, kinda. There are 'aluminum solder' compounds, with aluminum/zinc/tin/lead
and maybe other stuff (cadmium?) that will, if you carefully wire-brush the
alumium etc bright, usually bond. Use a propane torch, not an iron.

There are fluxes that work with aluminum, but (if memory serves) they
use fluorides, and lots of ventilation is recommended.

It may be useful to tin part of the surface with the aluminum solder, then
after assembling use a 'regular' solder (tin/lead or tin/antimony) to
complete the joint. The aluminum solder isn't forgiving of temperature
range, and cannot be held liquid long.

On Sunday, February 16, 2014 7:22:23 AM UTC-5, Rick wrote:
"oldnverygrey." wrote in

message roups.com...

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..

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This might work.....

http://www.laco.com/aluminum-flux-paste/
That's the "right stuff" I used the laco flux to solder Aluminum with different solders..
(Al 3003, 1100, 6061 and tin/lead solder, silver solder and a Tin/Zinc solder... all seemed to work just fine right flux.)

George H.