How to solder thin stainless steel - Metals and their processing

How to solder stainless steel with brass

Their skill amazes and enchants, they bring dreams to life, create masterpieces, and pass on their skills from generation to generation. These people are jewelers. To conquer metal and turn it into beautiful products requires skill, perseverance and time.

The main metals that specialists work with are gold, silver, and stainless steel. The main operation in the manufacturing technology of a unique product is metal soldering. Soldering technology has its own characteristics for each material. Brazing stainless steel is a complex process.

Soldering silver at home is a rather expensive operation . It is especially technologically difficult and economically expensive to solder two different metals. Special conditions, special solder and flux must be observed. Author's products are becoming popular among consumers. Many complex projects have a combination of silver parts and stainless steel.

Technology for joining stainless steel parts

Unfortunately, soldering stainless steel is not such a simple process, and ordinary solders in the form of tin or copper will not do the job well. Solder for soldering stainless steel must contain silver. The industry produces it coated with flux (contains 30% silver). You can use solder containing zinc, copper and nickel.

Sometimes they solder with brass, this is considered the most difficult work. To melt brass, a temperature of 950 degrees is required. To ensure high-quality performance of work and reliable connection of parts into a single structure, it is necessary to use flux. For brass, the flux consists of boric acid and borax. Parts can be soldered using this method only if they are small and well heated. Soldering massive parts at home is problematic.

What you need to solder stainless steel:

gas-burner;
solder containing silver and coated with flux;
soldering acid.

Technological process of soldering stainless steel with hard solders:

heating parts for degreasing;
surface treatment with orthophosphoric acid;
heating parts to a red glow;
supply of solder followed by heating.

To solder a hole in a stainless steel sheet at home, you need to determine its size and prepare an appropriate patch . Soldering must be performed according to technology using solder containing silver.

Nanotechnology: welding pencil

The easiest way to carry out welding work is with a special welding pencil. It can weld any metal: aluminum, iron, stainless steel, copper, brass. Moreover, there is no need to clean and degrease the surface. This is new. It works as follows. Light a pencil, bring the burning end to the object being welded and carefully roll the pencil over the surface to be welded. The molten metal will adhere to the part and provide a reliable connection.

How to solder silver parts

You can't go anywhere without silver solder! Silver cannot be reliably soldered with tin. Although at first glance such a connection is strong, the metals react with each other, and the product crumbles after some time.

To ensure a high-quality connection of silver parts, you must use special silver solder. They come in three types: hard, soft and medium, differing in melting point (from 700 to 900 degrees).

Solder is selected depending on the type of metal and the requirements for joint strength. When manufacturing complex products in several stages, as well as when combining different structural elements, soft solders are used.

It should look like a small, very thin plate or wire. They cut it into small (millimeter) pieces. Soldering silver at home is done on a refractory brick, a piece of charcoal or a special ceramic tile. It is not recommended to perform soldering on a material that conducts heat well - it absorbs heating energy, and the soldered object does not heat up well.

You cannot use a simple wet brick, which crumbles under the influence of temperature due to the moisture it contains. Superheated steam will send a piece of brick straight into your face with great force.

To solder a part to an object, it is necessary to lubricate the cleaned and thoroughly degreased area with flux (ready mixture: boric acid, borax) or soldering acid. Removing grease, oxides and other contaminants is important. The degreased surface ensures a reliable connection with the solder. Jewelers, as a rule, use a weak acid solution for this purpose.

Painting stainless steel at home

After preliminary preparation, you need to heat the object slowly and evenly, keeping the burner flame low, this promotes degreasing. The burner power is then increased, heating the entire item. The flame must move over the entire surface - directed only to one place can melt and deform the surface. A piece of solder, previously degreased and soaked in flux, is applied to the hot surface using tweezers.

The solder should melt instantly under the flame of the torch. The parts that are connected must be evenly heated. If one of the elements is not hot enough, a strong connection will not be achieved. The easiest way is to connect elements of the same mass and thickness.

The process of soldering a small element to a massive object causes big trouble. In this case, the smaller element is carefully heated first, then a small amount of solder is applied.

Heating should be gradual and last until the solder begins to melt. The burner flame is directed to the main object to heat the entire surface. The soldering area is constantly heated by the burner flame.

At the moment when the object reaches the desired temperature, solder with flux is applied.

Source: https://respect-kovka.com/kak-payat-nerzhaveyku-latunyu/

Soldering stainless steel and aluminum

The first time I encountered the problem that I couldn’t solder two stainless steel bowls.
One of them is VSMPO. It does not tin with anything, neither acid, nor urea, nor aspirin. Although the plates from fixed price are soldered with a bang tixoxod-4×4, 26 Dec. 13, 17:43

Slow-moving, I didn’t try to solder the bowls, but I tried to solder the drawers at the joints with the coupling using orthophosphoric, but it didn’t work. I took flux for soldering aluminum, I slightly missed the joint, and of course it turned out to be a beautiful seam.
druid1965, 26 Dec. 13, 20:15

Sometimes brazing stainless steel is preferable to welding. Soldering is used for thin-walled products that are not subject to heavy loads, and in cases where they do not want to experience warping from heating.

It should be taken into account that some types of stainless steel require a certain approach, taking into account their composition and manufacturing technology. For example, cold-worked stainless alloys crack at high temperatures, so their soldering is carried out without loads, after first annealing the metal. There are other subtleties.

Features of alloys

Stainless steel cannot be soldered with aluminum and magnesium alloys. With other metals the process goes well, while the joint itself is characterized by increased strength.

Some stainless steel alloys, especially those containing more than 25% nickel, begin to release carbides at temperatures of +500-700 ℃. These chemical compounds reduce the corrosion resistance of the metal.

And the longer the soldering process at this temperature, the more intense the carbides are released. Therefore, soldering time must be reduced. Soldering at home is carried out with a soldering iron or a gas torch, and a soldering iron is used more often.

Solder selection

There are two factors influencing the choice of solder for stainless steel:

the conditions under which the connection process is carried out;
stainless steel composition.

If you have to work under normal conditions (in any room), then it is better to solder with silver solder, which contains a small amount of nickel.

Source: https://MyTooling.ru/instrumenty/pajka-nerzhavejki-s-aljuminiem

How to solder steel parts

Often there is a need to fasten steel parts without drilling and without welding. Soldering steel will help. But how to do it correctly, because there are special nuances here. A few recommendations from experts.

What kind of steel solders well?

Some grades of steel lend themselves well to soldering, while others are soldered with great difficulty and do not want to be combined with any solder or with any flux. As a rule, soft steels "for nails" are easy to solder. At the everyday level, this can also be explained by the fact that the material is dotted with microscopic craters and irregularities. But there are also electrical grades that are especially hard and elastic, and are used for shafts and precision mechanics. It's your luck here

The question is that it is impossible for a home craftsman to determine the brand by eye. You can only find out how well a given part made of steel, or an alloy close to it, is soldered by experimentation.

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How to make a tin connection - procedure

It all depends on how successfully the part can be tinned and how strong the contact of the tin solder with the steel is. In order for the contact to be satisfactory, if possible at all, the following must be done:

steel stripping, chemical stripping under solder;
heating the part to the melting temperature of the solder, keeping the solder on the part under flux for some time in a fluid state.

Cleaning the steel is first done mechanically, using sandpaper, to remove layers of rust and dirt. Then a composition that reacts well with iron oxides is used as a flux.

The most harmless to use, but effective in this case, is orthophosphoric acid, which can be easily purchased at a car store as a “rust cleaner.”

The required power of heating devices depends entirely on the mass of the parts.

The process of soldering two steel parts

If you need to solder two large nails, then the power of one soldering iron 100 W will not be enough. To heat up a large nail or a similar weight steel part clamped in a vice, you need to use a hair dryer. Or a gas burner.

You will also need cotton wool on a stick to supply flux to the heating zone, and a soldering iron of 50 W or more.

The sanded steel is heated with a burner.
Phosphoric acid is applied to the hot part and molten tin solder is immediately applied with a soldering iron.

As a rule, steel parts that can be soldered develop a very strong bond with tin, i.e. When the metal is coated, it is tinned.

The same is repeated with another detail. Then the two parts located together are heated, and additional solder is applied to the contact area with a soldering iron.

How strong is the soldering of steel, can it be made stronger?

The strength of such a connection will be determined by many factors:

strength of bond between solder and metal,
connection area,
direction of the load in relation to the welded planes.

But in any case, the strength of tin soldering cannot be compared with what is commonly understood as the strength characteristic of steel or “metal welding”.

You can strengthen it by using another solder - special strong and more refractory compounds containing silver, zinc, copper, etc.

Another direction for increasing strength is to cover with solder not only the plane, but also the sidewalls of the part - covering the part with solder. Then the pull-off resistance under multidirectional loads will be greater.

Extra strong soldering, special solders

To use compounds that provide a strong connection with steel, with its own melting point of about 800 - 900 degrees, you need to use a graphite crucible.

The work should only be carried out by specialists in metal smelting. It is necessary to know the basics of metal melting, the procedure for handling melts and safety precautions. In general, soldering of steel with heavy-duty solders is performed at specialized enterprises.

Possible solder composition:

55% zinc, 45% copper, some silicon to increase fluidity.

The composition is melted under a layer of coal in a graphite crucible. Steel parts to be soldered are heated with a gas burner. Phosphoric acid is used as a flux. The melt is fed to the parts. As a rule, tinning and soldering are carried out during one heating of both the parts and the solder.

But such soldering of steel is more complex than simple welding.

Source: http://stroy-block.com.ua/material/623-kak-payat-stalnye-detali.html

How to solder stainless steel to stainless steel? How to solder with a soldering iron with rosin and tin

How to solder stainless steel to stainless steel using tin and rosin? This is a very labor-intensive process, for which you need to know all the subtleties and tricks of soldering work. If you follow the instructions discussed in this article, you will be able to make a reliable connection of stainless steel products.

Process Features

For work with food containers, you can only use lead-free solders (for example, tin and alloys based on it). Soldering stainless steel products is a complex process that requires some knowledge and skills to perform.

The best solder for working with the mentioned metal is tin. Thanks to this material, it will be possible to make a high-quality connection. However, tin is more often used for soldering when small parts need to be attached or small cracks need to be repaired.

Solder is sold in coils or in the form of bars 2–4 mm thick.

In industry, soldering using tin is rarely used. And at home, to repair household items (for example, a stainless steel kettle), they use a soldering iron or a gas burner, as well as the mentioned solder. In this case, the main thing is to prepare the necessary consumables (consumables). But we should not forget: during soldering work, hot objects and toxic substances will be used, so you must follow safety rules.

Why do you need flux?

This substance will ensure uniform spreading of solder over the surface of the soldering zone and create conditions for high-quality adhesion of the material to the metal coating. Fluxes are currently classified according to the degree of impact on the following varieties:

Inactive (neutral), which do not contain acids. In addition, they almost do not conduct electricity.
Active (acid) fluxes.
Protective (anti-corrosion), the purpose of which is to protect the soldering zone of the finished joint from corrosion and destruction.

If the question arises why flux is needed for soldering, then the answer can be this: this substance is necessary to comply with the technology, since it will definitely be needed during soldering work. However, the method of application of the composition depends on its initial state:

if the flux is in a solid state, the soldering iron tip must first be dipped into the reagent, and then grab a little solder with it;
the finished liquid mixture will have to be applied to the soldering area using a brush;
The surface should be treated with a paste-like substance using a regular stick.

In addition, flux is sometimes sold in special tubes.

Necessary equipment

Before you begin repairing the product, you need to prepare the following tools and materials:

A simple soldering iron (minimum power - 100 W) or a propane torch.
Organic solvent (for example, white spirit or acetone).
Tin solder.
Rosin or phosphoric acid.
Steel rope.
Metal brush, file or sandpaper.
Clean cloth for wiping.

However, before soldering stainless steel to stainless steel and, accordingly, repairing the part, you should purchase protective equipment: polyurethane gloves, goggles and a respirator.

In addition, to connect large products, a more powerful soldering iron may be required, the tip of which must be fireproof: this will not only increase the service life, but also improve the technical parameters of the tool.

Regarding solder, it should also be said that tin bars are suitable for soldering food utensils or other containers, since they contain fewer harmful impurities.

How to solder with a soldering iron with rosin and tin: technology

When the materials and tools are prepared, you can begin this operation. To solder stainless steel at home, you need to follow these step-by-step instructions:

Use sandpaper or a brush to remove oxide film and other contaminants from the metal surface.
Degrease the part to be repaired with solvent.
Apply flux - rosin or soldering acid - to the surface to be treated. This step does not need to be performed if a combined tin solder is used, which already contains the mentioned substance. Flux must be applied immediately before soldering, since a film forms on the surface of the stainless steel after about 10 seconds.
Heat the soldering area on which the flux is applied with a tinned soldering iron tip.
Add solder if necessary, but most likely you won’t be able to cover the entire surface with tin the first time.
Reapply flux and heat it again with a soldering iron. Repeat this process until the surface of the metal is covered with an even layer of tin. The main thing is that the solder melts not from the tip of the soldering iron, but from the heat stored in the part. In addition, to make the soldering of stainless steel with tin better, you need to add rosin to the joints, which will remove oxides from the solder.
Wash the product from flux residues. To complete this step, you need to prepare a solution consisting of water and detergent and buy metal scrapers. The remains of rosin, according to the masters, can be easily cleaned with cold water, since the substance becomes brittle in it.

Soldering is considered high quality if the result is a uniform surface. But in any case, at the end the coating must be sanded with sandpaper or a file.

How to join stainless steel parts: optimal technique

First you need to equip your workplace. The table must be steel or have a non-flammable surface. The main thing is that it is even. In addition, you need to make high-quality exhaust ventilation. In turn, in order to solder several products into one at home, you need to cover their parts with tin and fix them together. The next step is to heat the parts at the same time so that the hot solder bonds. You will probably have to add tin to the soldering area by placing it on the soldering iron tip.

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After this, you need to warm up the entire surface and, if the solder is applied well, you need to place the parts on a flat surface. A stainless steel product assembled from two or more parts must not be moved until the joints have completely hardened. It is better to secure the soldered parts with fastening devices (for example, clamps or a vice).

Soldering with a gas torch: repairing a kettle

First, you need to thoroughly clean the soldering area with sandpaper and remove scale near the damaged area. To solder a stainless steel kettle with a gas burner, you need to follow these instructions:

Heat the connection with a flame, smoothly moving the device. The heating will be sufficient when the solder begins to melt upon touching the metal.
Apply flux (rosin or phosphoric acid) to the soldering area.
Apply tin to the damaged area, while continuing to heat the area with the burner so that the substance melts and fills the entire defective area.
Sand the seam with a metal brush.
Wipe the sealed area with alcohol to clean its surface from scale and oxides.

During soldering work, you need to monitor the oxygen level. To determine this parameter, you need to look at the flame, the normal shade of which is blue. In an oversaturated composition, the color will be pale, which indicates an excess of oxygen. If you ignore this requirement, there is a high probability that the stainless steel will begin to oxidize.

Advantages of soldering stainless steel with tin

The advantages of this method include the following properties:

consumables are inexpensive;
no lengthy preparation of the part is required;
simple soldering work for small-sized products;
tin solder reduces the fluidity of stainless steel during soldering;
good connection quality.

Flaws

In addition to the undeniable advantages, soldering stainless steel with tin solder also has some disadvantages:

difficulty in sealing seams on inclined and vertical planes caused by the high fluidity of tin;
insufficient strength of permanent connections for large structures;
reduction in the permissible temperature range of soldered parts due to the fact that the tin will simply melt if the material is exposed to temperatures above 231.9 °C.

Recommendations

Naturally, without a good soldering iron and flux, you won’t be able to make a reliable connection. However, before soldering stainless steel, you need to consider other points:

It is advisable to buy a soldering iron with a tip that does not burn: the service life of such a tool is longer than that of a conventional device. However, it must be constantly descaled and sharpened. In addition, it is recommended to use a soldering iron with constant heating: this will save energy.
Soldering stainless steel without flux is a bad idea, since an oxide film will constantly appear.
Inexperienced craftsmen should practice a little on unnecessary parts and scraps. You need to remember: a reliable connection is difficult to tear off, and you can check its quality using a screwdriver or an awl.
A part treated with a solvent should only be touched with gloves, since a small stain left on the surface can ruin the entire work.
Before soldering stainless steel to stainless steel, you need to provide the room with good ventilation. In addition, do not touch heated metal or solder with your hands, or inhale toxic fumes.
Containers with substances must be immediately closed with a tight lid after use.
The finished part must be cleaned of flux and soldering compound. Food containers are treated with soapy water and boiled to neutralize aggressive acids.

Basic mistakes

If, taking into account the recommendations, it is still not possible to make a high-quality connection, then such a failure may occur due to:

poor metal stripping and poor degreasing;
insufficient heating of the stainless steel;
incorrectly selected solder or flux;
the fact that the soldered part was subjected to mechanical stress too early, since the product did not have time to harden.

Conclusion

The article discussed how to solder stainless steel to stainless steel. To perform the work described, you need to purchase the necessary equipment and devices. During soldering work, the main thing is to make high-quality seams that will provide the parts with a reliable connection. Additionally, with the information in this article, anyone can repair small stainless steel items themselves using a soldering iron, tin solder, and flux.

Source: https://labuda.blog/199637

Why a soldering iron does not solder well: how to tin a soldering iron and prepare it for work

Category: Soldering, Articles 10/15/2018 · : 0 · Reading time: 3 min · Views:

Why doesn't solder stick to the soldering iron?

The main and main reason for this problem is very strong carbon deposits on the soldering iron tip. The fact is that if there is no solder or flux residue on the soldering iron for a long time when it is turned on, then a dense layer of soot forms on the surface of the tip due to oxidation, which can no longer be cleaned off with a desoldering sponge. This is why solder rolls off the soldering iron tip.

Causes of soot

Some beginners or those who are used to working with copper tips make a fatal mistake. They clean the soldering iron tip with sandpaper, files or blades from a stationery knife. This is only true for uncoated copper tips.

This method is unacceptable in principle for “eternal” stings.

There is a high risk of damaging the outer layer of the tip (a thin metal alloy), which can lead to cracks and further destruction. In addition, despite its appearance, the soot layer itself does not exceed some microns.

So how to clean a soldering iron from such deposits? There are several ways.

Easy sponge cleaning

The easiest way is to clean the tip with a metal sponge. Small metal shavings clean the tip from carbon deposits without damaging the coating. Such sponges are sold in any smartphone spare parts store, as well as in radio stores and online stores (AliExpress, etc.). A kitchen one can also work, but you need something dense and softer. In addition, it will be worse to clean.

An even more affordable recovery option

By soldering you can remove a layer of carbon deposits. We make a small bath of solder. You will need a solder rod and flux. Preferably activated (for example, LTI - 120). You can even use regular alcohol rosin. This is in the case of “light” soot, of small size.

Now we divide the solder bar into small pieces and pour a little rosin or flux (even if you have solder containing rosin, this is not enough for this case).

And we begin to bathe the tip in solder. If the solder does not melt, then you need to increase the temperature.

We coat the tip in solder from side to side, without pulling it out, so that the tip is completely enveloped. In a couple of minutes, a small amount of carbon deposits will evaporate, and it will be possible to take a little more fresh solder onto the tip after “bathing”. We leave the soldering iron heated with a drop of water for 10 - 15 minutes.

When doing this work, thoroughly ventilate the room! If the carbon deposits are still difficult to clean off after several attempts, then now you need to use soldering acid. The procedure is the same.

Sting activator to help

Even if it didn’t work out with solder, there is still one more way - this is an activator for the tips. Like the metal sponge, it is available in radio stores and can also be purchased on AliExpress. The principle of operation is simple - dip the tip of a working soldering iron into the activator for a couple of seconds and clean it with a sponge after that.

After removing the carbon deposits, you need to apply solder to the tip as soon as possible. even in a few seconds it can burn (if, of course, your soldering iron temperature is over 340 ℃)

Tips for caring for your soldering iron

Do not leave the soldering iron turned on for a long time without solder or flux on the tip;
Clean the tip only with a desoldering sponge or a metal sponge, which also removes carbon deposits;
Do not clean the sting with sandpaper , a knife, or a scalpel. There is a risk of damage to the coating;
If you solder with acid , be sure to clean the soldering iron after soldering; do not leave it to cool with acid!

Useful videos on the topic

Source: https://tyt-sxemi.ru/payalnik-ploho-payaet/

What kind of solder to solder stainless steel with - Metalworker's Guide

Soldering stainless steel is a rather labor-intensive process, but at the same time there are no great difficulties here. Alloys containing up to 25% nickel and chromium are alloyed together quite simply. Moreover, these alloys can create strong bonds with other metals, with the only exceptions being magnesium and aluminum alloys.

But you need to pay attention to the fact that some nickel-plated alloys when heated to a temperature of 500-700 degrees. Carbides can form; their level of release depends on the duration of soldering, so the procedure time must be reduced.

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The resulting carbides significantly reduce the corrosion resistance of stainless steel. In order to minimize the precipitation of carbides, titanium is added or additional heat treatment is carried out upon completion of soldering. Under the influence of hot solder (tinol), the cold-hardened stainless material can crack, so soldering occurs after annealing, without using loads during soldering.

The choice of solder for stainless steel depends entirely on the following characteristics: steel composition, soldering conditions. It should be noted that products that are made in corrosive conditions must be soldered using silver tinols, which contain a small amount of nickel in the composition. Copper, silver-manganese, and chromium-nickel solders are used during oven soldering in dry conditions.

is most often used as a flux for processing stainless steel . It is applied to the joint in powder or paste form. When the borax melts, the rest of the metal gradually heats up to a bright red heat (850 degrees). When this temperature is reached, solder is injected into the joint.

Removal of material adhering to the stainless surface upon completion of soldering is done by rinsing the soldered product in water or by sand blowing. Hydrochloric or nitric acid, which can be used in cleaning, are very undesirable at this stage of working with stainless steel, since they, along with the solder, will corrode the base metal.

Soldering stainless steel at home

Perhaps everyone knows that a home handyman is constantly faced with everyday difficulties that he needs to eliminate on his own. But it often happens that you need to do the work associated with processing stainless steel yourself. Therefore, this will require certain skills, abilities and knowledge. You will also need to acquire some materials and tools. Here is a list of everything you need:

Soldering acid;
Electric soldering iron 100 Watt;
Tin solder for joining metals;
File or sandpaper;
A tube;
Metal cable.

Now that you have decided on the soldering tool, you need to know the steps to perform the actions:

To process stainless steel, you must initially ensure that you have flux and a 100-watt electric soldering iron. You need to know that there is no point in choosing a more powerful soldering iron for processing stainless steel. The flux is ordinary soldering acid. Also, do not forget to always have tin-lead solder on hand.
When all the necessary tools and materials are ready for soldering, you can begin work. First you need to clean the stainless steel joint: this can be done using sandpaper or a file. Upon completion of cleaning the work areas, it is necessary to apply soldering acid followed by further treatment. If the treatment does not work (the solder does not stick to the surface of the stainless steel), then you need to re-manipulate the soldering acid on a thoroughly heated surface, then perform the treatment again.
In the case when you made a second attempt, and it was not successful, and the solder lags behind again, then the working surface of the stainless steel needs to be cleaned with a special brush, which you can make your own: you will need a piece of pipe with a cross-section of 5 mm, where you place thin wires pulled from a metal cable . Now, apply acid to the soldering area, and then bring the brush and soldering iron here at the same time. Then start working with two tools. It should be noted that this process is very helpful in removing the oxide film from the surface of stainless steel.
When the parts have been tinned, begin soldering stainless steel using a soldering iron and flux.

Soldering with a gas torch

The parts are heated using a gas torch or a tin-plated soldering iron tip. When working with the burner, you must ensure that there is not too much oxygen in the flame, because this causes the stainless steel to oxidize. This can be determined by the color of the fire (it should be blue); if the color is pale and the fire is weak, then this indicates an excess of oxygen. To warm up the connection, the burner must be moved smoothly.

By periodically touching the metal with solder, the quality of the temperature achieved is determined. Heating is sufficient when the solder melts not from the flame of the torch, but from touching the metal.

Then solder is immediately applied to the part where the joint needs to be made, while the parts continue to be heated so that the solder, melting, slowly fills the joint completely . If there is not enough liquid solder in some area, it is heated more strongly than other places, and the solder itself flows into it. A clear sign of high-quality soldering is the leakage of excess solder from the joint.

Working with hard solders

Stainless steel soldering works well using flowable, liquid, fluxed solder with a low melting point and high capillary characteristics. This solder is quite elastic and has excellent deoxidation properties, which are very useful when working with stainless steel.

Strength class of stainless steel bolts

It can also handle brass, copper and some other materials. Soldering with such hard solders is very suitable for stainless steel. Stainless steel does not contain cadmium, and the percentage of silver here is 30%. Processing the material with hard solders gives good results, making it possible to obtain durable and high-quality metal fastening.

HTS528 solder can cope with copper, brass, nickel, bronze, stainless steel, and other metals. Along with other hard solders today, this tinol is the most in demand. The solder looks like a rod treated with red flux. The rod size is about 45 cm , and the weight is 20 g. The melting point is 760 degrees.

How to choose a flux for soldering

Small elements are soldered with adjustable gas-air burners (this method is more suitable for jewelry). Larger parts are best soldered with acetylene. The same applies when choosing a flux for stainless steel, since this metal is very demanding on flux. Flux for stainless steel consists of 10% calcium fluoride, 20% boric acid, 70% borax .

For small stainless steel parts, you can prepare a flux composition that includes 50/50% boric acid and borax. This flux must be diluted in water, then applied to the part; when it dries, the solder will adhere perfectly to the metal surface.

That is, the soldering area is not etched, but only cleaned using sandpaper. Copper does not spread well over the surface of steel, so it is better to use L 63 brass. For better soldering, you can also use silver and brass to make solder from them.

Recommendations from professionals

There are many people who, so to speak, “ate the dog” when working with soldering. And they share personal experience gained in practice, giving useful recommendations:

It is best to choose a soldering iron with a non-burnable tip.
An electric soldering iron needs a power of 60-100 watts. The most optimal soldering iron is 100 Watt. A less powerful soldering iron will not be able to heat the metal.
Phosphoric acid works best as a flux.
It is advisable to use tin-lead rods as solder. You can also use tin in its pure form. It must be said that it is better to solder utensils with tin, since pure tin does not contain lead.
When working with soldering, it is necessary to use personal protective equipment.
Soldering must take place in a well-ventilated and open area.

Basic mistakes during soldering

If an error is made during preparation, selection of materials, or during the soldering process, the solder may not spread over the surface and may not hold the parts together. It happens that the parts were not properly cleaned or were not heated up properly. This often happens with large-sized products. The tip of the soldering iron must be thoroughly cleaned after any session, and in order for jewelry work to be possible, its tip must be sharpened from time to time.

To obtain a high-quality connection, do not solder stainless steel with pure lead or use rosin. If the solder is made of tin, then working with it can be quite difficult due to its weak consistency. If the tin does not melt more than to the state of warm plasticine, then most likely it will not hold the connection, constantly breaking and crumbling. The optimal state of tin for fastening is if it looks like a liquid.

High-quality solder, which is laid according to all the rules, can only be scratched , but not separated from the stainless steel soldering area. In order not to damage the connection in the future, after soldering the product must be allowed to cool down at rest. When the joint has cooled, it is cleaned of any flux and solder that remains at the edges, and then washed thoroughly with soap.

Source: https://ssk2121.com/kakim-pripoem-payat-nerzhaveyku/