Solder

[elk killer]

What's the best big box solder for gun work?

[Mike Brooks]

What's the best big box solder for gun work?

I prefer 50/50. I don't know if they even sell it any more big box, I buy mine at farm auctions.

[B.Habermehl]

I use modern lead free plumbing solder. It is almost entirely tin with traces of silver and antimony. I don't think the solders alloy matters so much as how the surfaces are prepped. I use hardware store rosin as flux. The metal must be clean and oil free. BJH

[Mark Elliott]

I don't know what the Big Boxes sell.   I use four different solders.   I use a 95/5 paste solder (used to use 50/50),  a 440F silver solder,  a medium silver solder and a hard silver solder.  The high temp silver solders come from either Hoover & Strong or Rio Grande.   I would say that the 95/5 or 440F would be what you would want to use for most gun work.   You used to be able to buy the 440F silver solder at ACE hardware.   I ordered my paste solder directly from Swann.   You can probably get it at a plumbing supply house.    You want to keep the temp down around barrels.   I only use the medium and high temp silver solder to repair brass and silver. 

[L. Akers]

I also use different types and alloys of solder depending on what the purpose is.  Of the lead/tin alloys, 63/37 melts at the lowest temperature (why it's used in electronics).  50/50 is the strongest of the lead/tin alloys.  Addition of silver increases strength but also raises melting temperature.  Hi Force 44 solder from Brownell's is a popular solder for guns but probably not available at Big Box.  If Big Box is your limitation, I'd get the 50/50 lead/tin solder.  With any solder cleanliness is key to a good joint.

[deepcreekdale]

I have not been able to find good solder at the Big Box stores for years, they must be afraid someone will feed it to their kids because of the lead content, although I think you might be able to find some at Ace Hardware. I learned my soldering at  the NASA High Reliability Soldering School when I was in the Air Force so feel pretty comfortable while soldering. In order to pass that course, you had to solder a stepper switch with over 100 connections and have the weight come in within a few micrograms of spec. Couldn't use the "Bigger the blob, the better the job" school of soldering. I use Brownells Hi-Force 44 exclusively for soft solder jobs and Silvaloy silver solder for hard soldering/brazing. As has been pointed out, cleanliness and flux are paramount. Most people mess up by using more heat and more solder than necessary.

[P.W.Berkuta]

The 50/50 lead solder was for plumbing and since the lead poison thing the 50/50 has been replace by the tin/silver stuff. This is why you will not find 50/50 solder commercially being sold. If you do find it it is old stock that someone has tucked away. I use Stay-Brite for general solder work and high temp silver braze for heavy duty work. I do have a 1 pound roll of the old 50/50 but I use the Stay-Brite 98% of the time for low temp work.

[jerrywh]

 The question is not a valid question because it depends on what you want to solder. I use a range of solders that range between 175° F to as high as 1500° F. and almost everything in between. For stuff like under lugs on Fowler barrels I use either stay bright or swiff 95.  Stay bright is about the same as the common low temp silver solders bought at hardware stores.  Swiff95 is a paste solder no longer made but any 95-5 paste solder is the same thing basically.
  Anybody beginning to solder should buy a book or a CD on basic soldering. Rio Grande has some good literature on soldering. For advanced soldering there is a book or CD entitled beyond the basics. It is on jewelry but all the basics apply.

[kutter]

50/50, 60/40 whatever lead-tin soft solder for most everything that needs soft solder. I use the 'new' greenie lead free stuff once in a while cause I have some. It works well but I don't like the stay-brite solder line it can leave. The lead/tin stuff oxidizes over time or through the finishing processes.  It holds ribs & bbls together for me  on SxS shotguns and double rifles just fine, so I have no problems using it to stick an under rib or a pin lug onto a M/L bbl.
Common plumbers paste flux from the DIY store.
Technique and keeping things clean is the key,,not so much specialty solders and tools.

For hard solder (can't call it silver solder anymore), I have a big spool of some kind of hard solder that they used at Bausch & Lomb (USA) to assemble the eye glass frames.  They tossed all that stuff when they closed up shop and moved the operations to China and Mex. So a friend made a haul of the stuff.  B&L was glad to get rid of the 'junk'. Amazing what gets thrown away.
Very fine wire size, makes a very strong joint and easy to use with common hard solder water base paste flux.
I use that. Couldn't tell you what the composition is nor the temp specs. But  red heat is required.
Up from there I braze things together.

[msellers]

The last time I bought solder I got it from my local hardware/auto parts store. But another good source of smaller quantity solders is from a welding supply store like AIRGas or the like; had a decent selection on the shelf last time I was in. Of course you can always find most things on the good old internet.

[Goo]

What's the best big box solder for gun work?

I prefer 50/50. I don't know if they even sell it any more big box, I buy mine at farm auctions.

.                                                                           Geeze to Pete looks like we need to start alloying our own solder now, it's difficult to find zinc chloride too or ruby fluid as it used to be called

[Clark Badgett]

With a search last night for 50/50 solder, rotometals offers it in bar form and the wire kind is found on home depots website. Tons of it on ebay as well.

Is the bar kind useable for what we do? What is the best flux to use?

[kutter]

I use wire solder. It is convenient to handle and easy to tin a soldering iron with as well as adding an additional touch of solder to a joint when needed.
I generally flatten a couple inches off the roll of the solder wire, no matter the thickness of it, to a skimpy near paper thin look.
Makes for even quicker melt and flow when tinning or doing that small additional touch to a finished joint.
Simply hammer it out on the anvil portion of the vise as needed (keep it clean when doing so)

Block or bar solder was/is generally used to tin those large copper headed soldering irons used in radiator and sheet metal production work. The bar was much easier to use to (re)tin the soldering copper as it simply sat in place on the bench by it's weight and doesn't move as the soldering head is run accross it.

I've always used common plumbers paste flux in gun work of all types. Available from Home Depot or similar stores. Never a problem as long as everything is clean to start with and you don't over heat things burning off the flux which will destroy any soldering attempt no matter the solder & flux used.
I stay away from using 'acid flux' (Zinc chloride) now. It works great but can cause real bad after rust problems if not rinsed from the surface completely,,something not as simple as it would seem.
You can make your own by dissolving as much zinc in muriadic acid (hydrochloric acid) as it will take. Smokes and fumes so do it outside!

I used to to take dead flashlite batterys and strip them for the casings which were (still are??) zinc and make the stuff that way.
The black compound inside the case was manganese dioxide. Used to keep that and add about 5 to 10% by weight to the Nitre Blue salts to bring the melting point down for a lower degree temper bath sometimes needed.
My days of Mr Wizard @ Night are fewer now and it's been quite a while since I've ripped any EverReadys apart for their scrap components,,but it shows what could be done,,at least at one time.

[elk killer]

Went to a mom and pop hardware store a few miles down the road, found a good supply
of 50 50 ..wasn't cheap, but they do supply it

just use it to solder lugs and sights to round barrels
maybe a short under rib on rare half stock build