Cycling has been a sport I’ve enjoyed for quite some time. Occasionally when I made it to the podium there was a little profit in all that sweating. Most of the time the flow was in the other direction. Over the years I know I must have ridden a bazillion miles and as well, I know I’ve stopped at a 1/2 bazillion stop signs and red lights.
On the pavement of the intersections along with spare change, some pretty good wrenches and some rather hideous stuff not worth mentioning I started accumulating partial sticks of silver solder that fell from A/C and plumbing maintenance trucks. Today I thought I’d give them a try just to get a feel how this solder differs from the jeweler’s silver solder. What better project than a hollow form cuff! With regular solder it can be a challenge to deal with the warping and trying to get a sandwich type seam to perform in a respectable way. With the sticks I collected it was good in some ways that it was less viscous and flowing and bad in that it stayed clumped up until I really poured the heat onto the cuff.
More heat means more oxides and more oxides mean the need to use a really active soldering flux. Nasty stuff! Thank goodness for a decent exhaust system.
In the end things worked out well and the result was very pleasing. See what you think.
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nice result and shows what happens in a small artisan’s shop where experimentation is the norm rather than a conveyor belt production conforming to what will work for mass production.