Fabrication of solder wires

Did anyone of of you attempt to to press (extrude) solder wire from 8-10 mm diameter rod (this diameter of slug is not difficult to fabricate) down to 2mm?

Drawing from 8-10 mm down to 2 mm seems tedious so extrusion is perhaps a better idea.

I could provide an assembly keeping extrusion die between rt and 250*C.

Would 30T press be sufficient for soft tin based alloys at slug diameter 10mm and wire diameter 2mm at rt or one would need to heat extruding assembly close to melting point of wire to ensure that it is sufficiently soft?

How to approach the idea, where to get appropriae dies etc?

Martin

Never done this but this question makes me wonder: why do you want to to do this? And any plans to make wire with a flux core?

I'd use a jeweller's rolling mill to reduce the 8-10mm down to 2mm square, then, if you really need round wire, pull it through a draw plate.

@Wout,

yes, I am making various composition solders for my own use. Not cored.

@Gary

Available jewellers rolling mills begin with 5 gauge (5mm).

Where to get one beginning with 0 gauge?

Martin

An old work collegue of mine used to extrude relatively pure lead (mostly from cable sheaths) for making ammunition. If I remember correctly the barrel of the 'extruder' was around 30mm diameter and the finished rod was around 10mm diameter. The extrusion was done with a normal workshop hydraulic press and was carried out cold.

The extruder body and ram were steel, the die was just a hole.

Best regards

Roger

Martin Try www.hswalsh.com They used to have mills going down from 6mm to 1mm ( My catalogue is from 2006 ) or A J Thomas of Bradford ( Put A J Thomas into google )

Roy

There are attachments to allow continuous casting of Lead alloys from Lee melting pots, the commercial ones are for rod to cut to length to swage pellets and bullets but I can't see why thinner wire wouldn't be possible.

Many thanks for your comments.

It seems that suggestion of Roger is first to be tried as the cheapest and most straightforward.

@Roy, they are selling Durston rolling mills, one can enquire in Durston directly. Best small mills from Durston will deal with up to 10mm ingots. I would buy power one if matters came to that point albeit it will be necessary to sell some of produced solders to recover investment in mill. Only several "all purpose" solders are sold via general trade and there are plenty of others, often much better for a given purpose but available only if one buys 10kg and more.

So who knows, maybe it would be feasible to sell small lots via ebay.

@Nick, I don't know enough about this casting process to comment about feasibility for so small diameters.

Martin

Hi Martin.

A 30 tonne press is more than enough. In the late 80's when I was manufacturing brazing rods in a factory near Chesterfield, I had such a press. We extruded copper phosphorus wire from a 50mm dia billet down to 1.5mm in one stroke. In order to do this, we had to produce 16 strands simultaneously.

You may have to adopt a similar technique but it's not difficult.

You may have to warm the billet or slug to ease fabrication. I doubt if you will get sufficient heat into the slug simply by heating the die.

We also started to extrude silver solder rods succesfully in a similar manner before I made the mistake of misplacing trust in a bank and business partner and credit in the wrong place.

C'est la vie!

Keith

COUSINS supply a wide range of roll mills, but at a price

@ CuP Alloys 1,

Mamy thanks for your comment, this is very valuable.

So you was working on extrusion ratio ~70. I bet, you had to heat this Cu/P wire quite considerably before extrusion as it is quite brittle at RT. I would not suspect that such an extrusion ratio is possible on 30 ton press, unless extruded metal is rather soft. Probably extrusion itself was heating your billet even more.

What was used for lubrication? how piston was removed after job was done? By pushing up die from the other end?

For my trials I intend to make carbide die by brazing broken small inserts into a robust ring which will be placed on the botton of bore. Initially they will be ground to approximately circilar shape. Smaller ones have a hole about 2.8mm and nice wire should be produced.

It is sad to hear about your business troubles from the past. Anything what doesn't kill us will make us stronger but this type of experience is best avoided. Run business myself. Renting rooms for holidaymakers and few other activities.

In the past was working in chemical industry but have resigned.

Martin