Joining Stainless Wire

In another group I read joining two round pieces of stainless wire often co mes up in conversation. End to end, side by side, and end to side are all done or desired from time to time. The wire sizes range from 0.03" to 0.06 " give or take. I would be curious what approach some of you guys might ta ke to do these processes quickly and efficiently.

Mostly the join would be of the same size wire to itself, but occassionally it might be joining a lighter wire to a heavier wire. The resulting joint needs to be corrosion resistant, but not to an extreme. It is not exposed to strong acids. Hard or saltwater at worst. Life in use does not need t o be infinite, but over a lifetime it might see several hundred hours of im mersion with thousands of dunking cycles.

If the resulting joint is 75% as strong as the original wire or better that would probably be satisfactory. The wire is most likely a 308-316 spring wire, but others might be used.

The exact application is not really important. Its not a secret, but I oft en find that when you express an application people begin to critique the w hy and how of the end, rather than focus on the now problem. If you know o r 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 w ould like to see some pure thought on specific process ideas first. If nob ody has blurted it out I will be glad to share in a few days.

Bob

Reply to
Bob La Londe
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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:

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Reply to
Ed Huntress

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 .

Reply to
Terry Coombs

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

Reply to
Tom Gardner

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

Reply to
Gunner Asch

Nice article - thanks for the link. Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

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:

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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.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

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

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Reply to
Ed Huntress

+1 on silver brazing.

Michael Koblic, Campbell River, BC

Reply to
mkoblic

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

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

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

2010.

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

Reply to
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

Reply to
dcaster

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

Reply to
stans4

Fishing Lure Making. Yes.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

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