Half round brass beading

Hi, I was wondering how to attach half round brass beading to the edging of the bunker of my Traction Engine. The size will be 1/8 or 3/16 brass and the bunker is steel. Do you silver solder it or soft solder it or is there another method, ie a metal glue. Silver soldering will require a lot of heat on the bunker steel for such a small strip of brass,

Thanks

Garry in sunny Jersey

Full size practice is to use rivets, which is what I will be doing when I get round to the tender. I will be making my own section, curved but not half round, from hot rolled steel and bent hot around the various cut outs and bends on the tender.

Andrew

Soft solder should hold it in place OK. Stronger than many glues, it's an oft under-rated adhesive these days. I woild tin the two surfaces first then clamp them together and heat until the solder flows and forms a joint.

I've used soft solder to attach brass strip around window and door openings in a sheet steel cab wall with no problems, using a handyman gas torch. Just need to make sure you use a flux that works on steel and will cope with the heat needed as the cab sides (or in your case the tender sides) make a good heat sink.

Tin the back of it with soft solder and do the same with the edge of the tender. For 1/8 I would just use small spring clamps to hold in place as you apply a large soldering iron and some flux to sweat the two together, I did my Minnie that way.

For the 2" I tinned both surfaces but used 3/64 copper rivits, head on inside csk on the moulded side then sweat together once rivited

Thanks for the advice. I will soft solder the beading.

How many watts is your iron Jason? I've been struggling with my brass tender tank using a torch and a borrowed 300 W soldering iron. I've no previous experience of soft soldering and I'm hating every minute of it. I've dragged it out for a year so far.

If I could find it I would let you know but not seen it for a couple of years, tip is about 8mm dia do quite hefty. The other option is the old copper type you heat with a torch.

I suggest that you might use small rivets to hold the beading in place while the soldering is completed. Brass wire would be ideal, with the ends simply bent slightly, as this will cause no distortion of the work. The solder should flow into the rivet gaps and give a very neat finish, with the rivets only detectable able a year or so as the solder becomes grey rather than bright. Use lead-free solder and this will take even longer.

Cheers, Tim

Edited By Tim Stevens on 28/09/2019 15:17:33