[Jewelry making - Article 00221] - Re: [Orchid] An interesting idea for soldering

[Michael Honeycutt]

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Hi folks,

    This may be old news for some of you but I tried an  experiment the
    other day that I thought I'd share for general  information.
    Recently someone asked about a copper colored solder  alternative
    for keeping colors uniform. I thought that, since gold of  one carat
    (karat?) can be soldered with a lower karat gold alloy,  similar
    things might work with other metals. I had read that cartridge 
    brass was substantially different in alloy than red brass and that
    their  respective melting temps were also different with the
    cartridge brass  melting at a cooler temp. Since I wasn't sure if
    this was  ammunition-style cartridge brass or not, I pulled out an
    old dented and  spent cartridge case ( I also reload ammunition as a
    hobby) and cut it  down somewhat into little paillons. The brass at
    the case neck is  considerably thinner. I cleaned the brass up very
    well before cutting  it. I used handi-flux and tried to solder two
    scraps of copper together.  It worked very well. If one controls the
    amount of this brass used it  makes a very clean join. After I
    pickled it I absolutely could not tell  a color difference between
    the two. I hit it with a stainless-steel  toothbrush ( hard-core
    hygeine) to really clean it up. I was then able  to detect a slight
    color difference but it wasn't nearly as obvious as  using silver
    solder on copper. I haven't tried red brass for copper but,  with
    careful torch control, it seems it could be used as well. The 
    melting temp of cartridge brass was considerably less than copper so
    it  worked well. 

    On a similar note I tried brazing steel with plain brass craft wire 
    sized at 20 ga. It requires the judicious use of brass and has a 
    distinct color difference on steel. Nevertheless it brazed quite
    nicely.  Cartridge brass would no doubt be useful here as well. They
    may actually  be the same type of brass, I don't know. 

    On a completely different topic, I built a small toy steam engine
    out  of brass and copper. It functions properly when cranked by
    hand. I'm in  the process of building a small boiler for it (2 1/2''
    long and 1 1/2"  diameter) to see if it'll work in the real world.
    My main difficulty at  this point is in building a pressure relief
    valve for it. I've got a  prototype valve built but, without a way
    to verify pressure, I have no  way to calibrate the valve to safe
    levels. Improper calibration here  could lead to the thing exploding
    somewhat like a small hand-grenade.  Not something I'd want sitting
    on my desk. I'm hoping to eventually fire  it with a votive candle
    or a small container of gelled alcohol like  Sterno.   This may not
    be jewelry but, most of it being built on a  miniature scale, I'm
    getting plenty of practice cutting, filing, fitting  and soldering.
    It's all metalsmithing in the long run. My engine plans  came from a
    book originally published in 1913 and consist primarily of 3  drawn
    pictures and 60 sentences or so. Not a measurement to be had 
    anywhere, just basic descriptions of the component pieces. It's been
    a  real adventure so far. If the prototype engine and boiler work,
    I'm  planning to shrink the whole thing down to about 4 inches in
    any  dimension. I may make it out of sterling but most probably
    copper and  brass because they look so good on tiny machines, all
    polished up and  shiny. I'll keep the forum posted with my progress.
    I don't know who's  happier here, my beret-wearing artistic side or
    my mad scientist with  uncombed hair. Either way I'm having great
    fun learning all of this.  There's enough science and creative
    impulse in this project to keep both  sides of me giggling like a
    silly schoolgirl. I'm a guy so it isn't  pretty. 

Mike

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