Friday, September 24, 2010

100 degree solder

C15 Vacuum cyclinderI've mentioned this before but here's a job I wouldn't have fancies without C&L's 100 degree solder. The vacuum cylinder have whitemetal ends joined with a nickel silver wrapper.

The later is bend around a handy pen to form the U-shape. The I tacked it into place with the solder. All this was done with a 45W iron - do it quick and the whitemetal doesn't melt. To be on the safe side I also heated the nickel.

I suppose I could seam the joins nicely but this part isn't stressed so the tacks will do. And I'm scared of pushing my luck and doing some damage.

Of course in the "good old days" the nickle would be bent, then tinned with normal solder and then the joins made with a low temperature iron and whitemetal solder. This would still work, although the tinning would have to be very thin so it didn't affect the fit of the parts, but this stuff is worth the money.

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