I am silver soldering brass and carbon steel in making clock parts using a
high temp solder and a MAPP gas torch. What might you recommend to minimize
the amount of cleanup needed, thermal paste? Is so what's good etc, or are
there other means. My end results are polished parts and what ever can be
done to make it easier is what I am after.

Thanks,

Rog

What might you recommend to minimize
the amount of cleanup needed


Have you tied soaking the parts in hot soapy water for 20 minutes?
That has always worked for me.

Lewis.

What might you recommend to minimize
the amount of cleanup needed


Have you tied soaking the parts in hot soapy water for 20 minutes?
That has always worked for me.

Lewis.

What might you recommend to minimize
the amount of cleanup needed


Have you tied soaking the parts in hot soapy water for 20 minutes?
That has always worked for me.

Lewis.

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 20:08:53 GMT, "Roger Jensen"
wrote:

I am silver soldering brass and carbon steel in making clock parts using a
high temp solder and a MAPP gas torch. What might you recommend to minimize
the amount of cleanup needed, thermal paste? Is so what's good etc, or are
there other means. My end results are polished parts and what ever can be
done to make it easier is what I am after.

It helps to use lots of flux. Flux loaded with oxides is much harder
to remove, so a surplus of flux actually makes cleanup easier. Hot
water usually is sufficient.

In article , Roger Jensen
says...

I am silver soldering brass and carbon steel in making clock parts using a
high temp solder and a MAPP gas torch. What might you recommend to minimize
the amount of cleanup needed,

Cleanup of *what*?

If you are getting a lot of oxides on the parts, you need to use
more flux and a softer flame so the flux does not blow off and
leave exposed spots.

If you are worried about the flux itself, soak the parts in
boiling water to remove that.

If you have trouble with the solder running where you don't
want it, that can be remidied with "stop-off" which is a paste
or paint sold expressly for the purpose of preventing silver
solder or braze from adhereing where it isn't wanted.

Jim


--
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please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
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On 8 Jan 2005 15:43:55 -0800, jim rozen
wrote:

If you have trouble with the solder running where you don't
want it, that can be remidied with "stop-off" which is a paste
or paint sold expressly for the purpose of preventing silver
solder or braze from adhereing where it isn't wanted.

Milk of magnesia. Paint the areas to be stopped off with it.It repels
the solder. We use it at work when furnace brazing all the time, and
jewellers use it as well.

Why are you silver soldering clock parts? (Non adjustable assemblies are
drive fitted or riveted; even soft solder is only used on cheaper French
clocks. I have never seen silver soldered parts unless used to repair a
broken original part.). Silver solder heat (1100 degrees min) takes the
hardness out of the brass and steel which cannot be then be rehardened
without the solder joint moving. And since brass must be work hardened, you
cannot reharden it without changing the shape/dimensions anyway. Over time
soft brass gets charged with abrasives and acts as a lap, the soft steel
wears and will not yield a high polish.

As for the soldering, you may be using too much heat, your soldering block
may be contaminated, or you may not have adequately cleaned your parts. If
you have everything cleaned, you should need very little flux at the joint
and even less solder. There should be no need for thermal paste or
antiflux.

When I silver solder I use a very small flame from a jeweler's torch and
"sneak up" on heating up the parts. The instant the solder flows I back
off. I use propane/oxygen which I believe produces a cooler flame then
Mapp. I have used this torch to fuse brass to steel in making a balance
wheel so I know it is more than adequate heat for any job in clockmaking. I
wonder if the Mapp torch is simply too much?

--
Regards,
Dewey Clark
http://www.historictimekeepers.com
Restorations, Parts for Hamilton M21s, Products for Craftsmen
Makers of Historic Timekeepers Ultrasonic Clock Cleaning Solution

"Roger Jensen" wrote in message
news
I am silver soldering brass and carbon steel in making clock parts using a
high temp solder and a MAPP gas torch. What might you recommend to
minimize
the amount of cleanup needed, thermal paste? Is so what's good etc, or are
there other means. My end results are polished parts and what ever can be
done to make it easier is what I am after.

Thanks,

Rog

What kind of filler metal are you using? All silver brazing rod is not the
same - with higher silver content (say, 50%) you will get better fluidity
than low silver content rod. Dave

"Roger Jensen" wrote in message
news
I am silver soldering brass and carbon steel in making clock parts using a
high temp solder and a MAPP gas torch. What might you recommend to
minimize
the amount of cleanup needed, thermal paste? Is so what's good etc, or are
there other means. My end results are polished parts and what ever can be
done to make it easier is what I am after.

Thanks,

Rog