Filling voids in cast brass

[sdilts]

What is a good way to fill the voids that cannot be filed out in cast brass?

 

[Stophel]

I just silver solder them up.

Some people will peen little bits of brass to fill in the voids.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

My Dad used to do a lot of bronze and brass work. One can braze a brass casting with O2acetylene torch, but the parent metal melts at the same temp as the filler rod.

We had best success by making our own brass rivets on the lathe, drilling a hole, peening them in, then filing them to smooth/blend. On small holes I would think you could use small solid brass nails, as long as they were solid brass. Be sure to add a countersink on the other side to lock it in place.

 

[billraby]

Open up the void with a ball bur to get clean metal on the inside of the void. Melt a small piece of brass into a ball that fits and put it in there. Coat everything in a mixture of boric acid and denatured alcohol then light it on fire. That leaves the metal coated in boric acid. when it gets hot it will melt and help keep the metal from oxidizing. Put a high temperature flux on the area to be repaired. Use a torch with a small, hot flame and heat up the area, but concentrate on the small brass ball. Pull the flame away the instant that it melts into the larger piece. As said above, filler melts at same temperature as surrounding metal so practice on some scrap first. I always preferred propane or natural gas over acetylene.

 

[sdilts]

Well, I believe I'll try the peening and rivet methods first. I'm a bit skittish about heating the brass. Thanks guys.