Question about soldering

[FL-Flintlock]

FL-Flinter, About the saliva thingy...naw, th' Red Man kills ever livin' organism within....an' Moon Pies tones the muscles.  Cheers, Bookie

Ya ain't lived till ya had a big ole lard-fried Moon Pie!     

[Acer Saccharum]

Back to soldering and bending the barrel with heat, I would try to heat the whole section evenly, both top and bottom to avoid bending the tube. Heat of 500 to 600 degrees will not hurt the barrel in any way, as long as you heat it evenly and slowly. let it cool naturally, too. ( Good Lordy, putting a wet rag on the opposite side will surely change the point of impact. That would make Don Getz wake up in a sweat.)

Tom

[FL-Flintlock]

Back to soldering and bending the barrel with heat, I would try to heat the whole section evenly, both top and bottom to avoid bending the tube. Heat of 500 to 600 degrees will not hurt the barrel in any way, as long as you heat it evenly and slowly. let it cool naturally, too. ( Good Lordy, putting a wet rag on the opposite side will surely change the point of impact. That would make Don Getz wake up in a sweat.)

Tom

I dunno what happened to the rest of my previous post ... cyber gremlins! 

C'mon Tom, everyone knows you use an ice pack and not a wet rag.    Seriously, if one would clamp the end of a barrel in a lathe chuck or similar fixture and put some dial indicators around the opposite end, those needles bouncing around while they're "heating evenly" would scare the $#*! outta them.  As Mr. Kelly states, it doesn't take a lot of heat to move iron, it just takes a differential.  Since the Hawken brothers are mentioned here a lot, one would note that they had to call the fire department out to spray water on the side of the St. Louis arch that was being heated by the setting sun so as to get the center connection point to line up. 

[Steve Bookout]

You know, Mark...that photo looks almost blasphemous, but maybe I ought to go try one!   When I initially saw the picture, I thought someone was trying to solder them two cookies together.  Cheers, Bookie

[David R. Pennington]

The trick to soldering is cleaning the surfaces to be joined and proper heat. You don't have to always tin first but it's sort of like insurance. Especially when you want to position something precisely like a barrel lug. I like to use a good liquid flux, but you have to make sure you get it killed after or it will rust your barrel up. I like the old fashioned copper solder irons you can pick up at the flea market. I heat them in the forge and use two so one is always hot. Getting harder to find the sal amoniac to 'fix' or clean the solder irons with. I can sometimes get the local sheet metal shop to part with little chunk. The thing about this method is it is almost impossible to overheat or burn the flux. I know it sounds old fashioned but ain't that what were all about? Any one else use these?

[FL-Flintlock]

You know, Mark...that photo looks almost blasphemous, but maybe I ought to go try one!   When I initially saw the picture, I thought someone was trying to solder them two cookies together.  Cheers, Bookie

Blasphemous?  Crunchy sweet on the outside, soft sweet on the inside ... how can that be "blasphemous"?   

[Dphariss]

The trick to soldering is cleaning the surfaces to be joined and proper heat. You don't have to always tin first but it's sort of like insurance. Especially when you want to position something precisely like a barrel lug. I like to use a good liquid flux, but you have to make sure you get it killed after or it will rust your barrel up. I like the old fashioned copper solder irons you can pick up at the flea market. I heat them in the forge and use two so one is always hot. Getting harder to find the sal amoniac to 'fix' or clean the solder irons with. I can sometimes get the local sheet metal shop to part with little chunk. The thing about this method is it is almost impossible to overheat or burn the flux. I know it sounds old fashioned but ain't that what were all about? Any one else use these?

You can order ammonium chloride from chemical supply houses on the WWW.

Dam