Fine Gauze

I "lost" my piece of fine brass gauze to make a water filter ahead of a steam injector. The workshop gremlins obviously wandered off with it!

However I am now jubilant as I found a disc or two of stainless gauze recovered from defunct cafetières. Its easy to soft solder with a 25watt soldering iron. Use phosphoric acid as the flux (Jenolite liquid rust killer).

To make a 3/16" diameter filter, cut a piece off the disc and wrap around a 3/16" copper tube (dirty tube is best). Hold in place with a bit of cotton thread. Slide about 1/4" length off the tube and solder the joint. Slide it all off and put it back on the other way around and repeat, slowly slide each 1/4" length along and solder until done.

An alternative tube - unaffected by solder - is fibreglass - as used in the flexible tent poles which are threaded through slots in the tent.

Just a thought

Tim

Speedy, well done!, good clear instructions like LBSC. Got any more good loco build tips?

Come on, spill the beans as the great man used to say.

John

Tim, do you mean a piece of figlass thread poked thro' the holes?

DMB: No - the tubes used as internal tent-poles are made of fibreglass, and so are non-solderable and heat resistant. Just what you need to wrap a tube of gauze around for soldering. I make a distinction between fibreglass - a composite of resin and glass, and glass fibre - which has no resin holding the strands together.

Some types of greenhouse watering systems also use the same sort of fibreglass tubing.

Regards, Tim