soldering help

[JOHN F]

hey guys trying to solder underlugs of my blunderbuss.cant get the lugs to stick..have cleaned with steel wool ,emeroy cloth put the flux and even used mapp gas .i am using 430 degree solder.what can i do??

 

[shortstring]

How I would do it is to tin each piece & then solder them together. First emery the 2 surfaces,coat them with flux & melt some solder onto the surfaces. While hot you can wipe off the exess solder. Now when put together & heated the solder will flow between the 2. I use 50/50 solder & Ruby red flux.

Paul

 

[Birddog6]

I have done it two dif ways:

Clean the barrel & the lug or sight well, wipe the surfaces with a liquid flux, then also wipe a very thin smear of paste flux on them, heat, stick the solder to the edge of the joining parts & let it suck the solder in, keep feeding it til it is full all the way around the joint.

Heat the barrel, not the lug as you will overheat the lug & burn the flux & they won't solder.

Another way is clean as described above, take a pair of clean lineman pliers, cut off a piece of solder about 1/2" long & then smash it flat with the pliers, put the smashed piece of solder between the two pieces being soldered, heat, let the solder melt & bond the two, you are done.

I use Stay-Bright solder, and hole the parts with a piece of bent hacksaw blade & clamp. (Take the rubber tips off the clamps, took photo as a demo) :wink:

 

[Vaino]

Sand the lug location and lug, pencil off the lug width, apply Swif 95 solder paste sparingly between the pencil marks and on lug, use a lug/sight clamp to hold in position and apply heat indirectly.....Fred

 

[Flintlock58]

I used the same method as birddog6 on front sights and it worked well for me. I have also used some clear epoxies to hold sights and they all stayed on in the field. I do not have any left to tell you the brand name, sorry.

 

[Zonie]

One should never use steel wool any where around surfaces that are going to be soldered.

Steel wool is treated with a wax/oil to protect it while it is sitting in a store.
The wax/oil will rub off of the steel wool and contaminate any metal surface it touches.

This wax/oil is tough enough that the best of fluxes will not remove it and if any of it is left on the parts, solder will never stick to them.

Use new, clean wet/dry (black) sandpaper to clean the surfaces. Do not touch them with your fingers.
Heat the parts and apply a liberal amount of flux.

Also, do not overheat the material. That will usually cause the flux to break down and form oxides that will not allow solder to stick to them.