Soldering ~ discussion?

sean69

sean69

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Been looking for a good solder for various gun related applications ~ mostly sights, ram rod pipes, under ribs etc. Seems to be a lot of options out there in the higher silver content (lead free variety) - both brownells & track sell solders around 4-5% silver with no lead. (and pretty expensive to boot)

But what are we looking at here, do we need a few/several different types of solder with different properties? Or is there one jack of all trades solder that will do us? Higher silver content "seems" to translate to a higher tensile strength at the cost of higher melting temperatures.

My assumption is that the desirable properties are:

- high tensile strength
- ability to bond to many different types of steel, iron & brass
- low enough melting point to be used without special equipment
- high enough melting point to not be affected by barrel heat or bluing processes.

Is that about right....

Then I hit on some forums/posts/info about solders used in jewelry manufacture and HVAC applications with VERY high silver content (up to 15%!) and very high tensile strengths - but makes me wonder how brittle they can be?

Comments? Thoughts? what is everyone using? what does everyone stay away from?
 
Silver bearing solder can be sweated with a regular propane torch. Its principal advantage is higher tensile strength at temperatures in the order of 200 - 400 F. Not sure it would be needed for regular firearm applications. I don't think it can be characterized as brittle - all solders are pretty ductile.
 
I think brownells uses the hi force solder for two reasons: low temp, safe for hot bluing.
I've seen the same 4% silver, 96% tin solder sold up here.
 
For gun related 'soft' soldering jobs it is hard to beat Brownell's Force 44 or the same composition available here in Canada.

It is not affected by hot blueing salts, it even takes a bit of bluing colour. So much better than regular soft solder.
 
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None of the things that you mention require much strength. I have had good success soldering sight ramps, under ribs, thimbles and a few more things on ML's with 60/40 . The main thing is clean to bare steel, degrease, flux and clean again , then tin each piece, flux , clamp and sweat them together. 60/40 melts at a lowe temp, and is what I normally use. 95/5 will work well too but takes more heat.

Problems arise if the steel is not cleaned to white, degreased, and tinned. Flux core solder is not a good choice, use bare wire solder and keister flux and you should be good to go.
 
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