Joining Stainless Wire

Silver brazing. I have a fishing reel built by hand in the 1930s that was used for 40 years in salt water. It's all silver-brazed stainless, Monel, and nickel-silver ("German silver," or cupronickel). It has some green patina, probably because there was copper in the braze, but the joints remain strong.

As for your 75% requirement, here's strength data from the AWS:

The exact application is not really important. Its not a secret, but I often find that when you express an application people begin to critique the why and how of the end, rather than focus on the now problem. If you know or guess the application please keep it to yourself until the specific task has been thought about for atleast a few days. Its not a secret. I just would like to see some pure thought on specific process ideas first. If nobody has blurted it out I will be glad to share in a few days.

Bob

I'm pretty sure I know what you're doing ... Get a MOT and build a tiny spot welder . ISTR you're into electronics too ? Build a timer , bigger wire more time . It's going to take 2 fixtures , one for the side/side and one that can be reconfigured for the end/end and end/side welds .

The wire mills use a process similar to a bandsaw blade welder.

Spot welding if side by side is quick and simple. Its also doable if end to end, though a bit harder

Silver solder is also quite useful, but is much more time consuming

Nice article - thanks for the link. Bob

If you want more about silver brazing, Handy & Harman of Canada has been the best source for many years, even back when I was at _AM_, in the '70s and '80s. They published their brazing handbook online, for free.

It appears they've organized their information at the website of their subsidiary, Lucas Milhaupt:

Try the links at the bottom of the page. This appears to be where the American Welding Society got their information for that summary above. The L-H source goes into more detail.

Aha! It looks like the whole book is still available for free. You do have to register:

Michael Koblic, Campbell River, BC

On 8/10/2013 8:18 PM, Ed Huntress wrote: ...

I think that I've downloaded the brazing book and have it stored _somewhere_. What I liked about AWS article was that it is a summary. Don't confuse me with details.

Bob

I recall a fellow who made birdcages commented on my thread about choosing a stainless alloy that would not rust after being heated to a red heat. The thread was "Making double-prong skewers" in September

The birdcages were custom-made and large. His process was to spotweld the 316L stainless steel wire (I was using 0.125" diameter and he was using at least that thickness), clean the joint to remove fire scale, and then silver braze the spotwelded area. This was a bit stronger, looked good, and protected the birds' feet.

Joe Gwinn

I second making a spot welder using MOT's. Silver brazing would be fine if you had less than about 25 to do. But a spot welder is the thing if you have very many to do.

But I am curious what the application is. Dan

not a secret. I just would like to see some pure thought on specific proces s ideas first. If nobody has blurted it out I will be glad to share in a fe w days. > > > > Bob I second making a spot welder using MOT's. Silver brazi ng would be fine if you had less than about 25 to do. But a spot welder is the thing if you have very many to do. But I am curious what the applicatio n is. Dan

Sounds like saltwater fishing leaders or some kind of rigging for saltwater fishing. I've seen some of this sort of thing on the pegs at various spor t shops in CA along the coast. Some of the reels looked like they could do uble for light winches.

Stan

Fishing Lure Making. Yes.