Re: COE bits


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Dodge Power Wagon Forum ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Steve Kanavas on February 29, 2000 at 12:00:51:

In Reply to: COE bits posted by Ben Aylesworth on February 29, 2000 at 02:21:30:

There are a couple ways to fix these crappy alloys.
If it's broken, you can clean the mating surfaces by sanding, grinding, or blasting. This will clean the oxidation from the exposed metal in the area to be bonded.

Use one of those nifty soldering alloys that we see where the guy solders on a soda can. No secrets here, these are just low eutectic indium alloys. Available at your hardware store. They melt at about 180-300 degrees, well below the melt temp of the base material.

If the stuff won't stick, you can easily copper plate the ornament at home. Just get some copper sulfate and a 6 volt lantern battery. Copper sulfate is the blue crystal stuff that is in root killers for septic systems. About $8 at the hardware. Mix it in water in a plastic jar.
Use a chunk of copper on one battery lead, and the part on the other. A piece of copper tubing works fine. Experiment with a piece of scrap steel or something else first. (low voltage is best) If you get the polarity wrong, it won't plate. 30 seconds to 1 minute usually is enough time to plate. This primitive copper plating can actually be performed to great thicknesses. You'll get some bubbles in the plating due to the poor bath/deep layer control though.
Then you can solder the pieces together easily, as anything forms a bond with copper.

The plating needs a fairly rough surface to form a mechanical bond to the surface. You can also plate, then sand the plating off to fill pits in the workpice.

sak


Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:

Subject:

Comments:

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Dodge Power Wagon Forum ] [ FAQ ]