colored solder?

Brass filled epoxy ? Check the hardware store - There are metal filled epoxies.

Won't take much.

Martin

Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

brassbend wrote:

"brassbend" wrote: (clip) I know silver solder will do the job and looks sorta brassy when done but there is too much chance of melting the pipe. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ There are silver solders that melt at substantially lower temperatures than brass, so you should be able to do the job without blowing a hole. If you are inexperienced at this, get some brass sheet of similar weight and practice. When you get ready to do the actual repair, you can use a piece of the practice brass to back up the hole for extra insurance, if you feel you need it. Don't put flux around the back of the hole or on the backup sheet. You will probably have to do some filing, sanding and buffing on both sides to make the repair blend in.

Or, if the piece is of high value and you're really worried about messing it up, take it to a professional. They'll have the right tools and the skill to do the job (and they should have insurance to cover your loss if they screw it up). Ask for references.

- Michael

I was told there are chemical treatments for soft solder to change the color. I was told that the stained glass places use this to hide the solder joints on their lamps etc.

chuck

you can get a dull brass color, black, green, copper. a good shiny brass color is pretty hard to find. most stained glass shops will advise you to use paint of some kind on brass. i believe michaels has a bright shiny brass colored paint pen.

regards, charlie

I AM the professional : ) I have the right tools and the skill : ) I have also consulted with the highest pros in the instrument repair business and got a little information. I am taking it here in hopes that someone not in brass repair would know something we don't.

LB

Charles, A dull brass color would be quite an improvement. Is this done with a dye after the solder is on?

LB

it's done with a patina. here's an article on how to apply it.

here's what it is

most all stained glass places carry or can get it, or you can get it online. I use this site to buy stained glass stuff.

you can make your own. it's really copper sulfate with a pinch of salt in it i believe. the amount of salt makes it dark. if you leave it off, it's a bit brighter.

regards,

charlie

Is it possible you could burnish the hole closed?

If you have some scrap available to do a test on, I'd try a local welding shop with a TIG welder, you can use the same alloy brass wire or strip as filler.

You need someone used to doing delicate work, so the weld puddle is just big enough to do the job - I have a friend who fixes injection mold cavities for a living who can do itty bitty beads. And the beauty of TIG is lots of control.

Then the color match shouldn't be a big issue (except for the brass alloy mix getting a bit out of balance because of the weld puddle) it's more a matter of grinding and buffing the repair flat again.

-->--

I thought I recalled that you were a pro.

One possibility: use a tin-silver solder (Harris Staybrite, about 400 degrees) and then brush-plate the repair with brass. You can get the brush plating stuff from

There are two kinds of Staybrite solder; the Staybrite 8 (hard to find) has a plastic range so it'll "build" better -- might be better for filling holes.

Jewellers use solders in various shades of gold but these are hard rather than soft solders and so might not be suitable for the application. I'm afraid that I don't have my reference books to hand to look up the melting points.

Where on the instrument is the hole? Could you patch it from the inside with brass or copper shim? You will need to get a dremel or similar in to clean up the surrounding area if you go down this route to get the solder to take but it might be possible, I've seen this method used to repair valve ports, apart from the cleaning the difficult part is holding the shim patch in place while you solder it, this usually involves making up some sort of 'hairgrip' spring to hold it in place. K&S material centres (hobby stores) do a small pack of various thicknesses of shim.

Don Valentine

Got any pictures of your work/processes? Randy

Nope. TIG is used in a few application in the instrument industry, but the fabrication process is really designed around it - often the workpiece is water cooled. Instrument brass is just too thin (.014"), and the zinc likes to vaporise out of it with some sputtering - had really bad results on stock twice that thick. Once place that uses tig starts with a double thick workpiece, no filler, and a water cooled mandrel, then grinds the result down.

I'd be hesitant to use soft solder for patching - it's for large area joints not for structure. But one of the lower temperature hard silver solders with a wide plastic range, and a really really tiny flame might be an option. Unfortunatley the low temp hard solders - 56% silver, etc have a silver rather than brass color. The brass colored ones are mostly high temp, unless you get one with cadmium in it.

If it's in cylindrical tubing I'd try to remanufacture the part. In a critical taper like a leadpipe, I'd want to replace the entire section. Only in a bell section or possibly bell branch would I be likely to try a patch.

You could always add a gratuitous water key...

temperatures

I had wondered if solder would plate. Thanks for the info. At this point I am trying to make a solder out of powdered brass. I haven't got it right yet, the powder is indeed melting to the tube but each grain of powder IS NOT melting to its' neighbor. The repair looks jagged. LLB

Don, I think most repairmen would hang me if I put patches inside the tube. There is too much of a chance of that throwing something off and giving the horn a bad or even missing note.

LB

Randy, I am not computer savy enought to post any other than just sending a picture through Email. I would be happy to send one or two. Send an address if you want : )

LLB

You can get a hole almost closed that way but it will still leak if there is anything left for it to leak through.

LLB