Solder it, they say

[Clark Badgett]

Just spent the better part of an hour trying in vain to get my tang spot soldered onto my bolster. Clean, clean, clean, flux, heat, tang turn blue no solder. Wouldn't be so bad, but this is at least the 10th time I've failed. I can TIG weld, I've even managed to high temp solder a time or two, but this low temp stuff is kicking my rear end. I did manage to get it stuck together once, but it popped loose the first stroke of my file while trying to dress it with the barrel and bolster. Even the easy to use paste stuff has foiled me. 

[bob in the woods]

I've soldered them before, but the last time I just crazy glued them. Worked fine .

[Pukka Bundook]

Clark,
Clean it again and keep your heat down.

It won't solder if too hot.  Once it's turned blue the solder will just run off.  Play your heat on it gently and it'll stick. Tin both sides first.  The latter is important.  :-)

[RL]

I see I'm not the only one. My first solder job I soldered two 1/8 inch steel bars together. Piece of cake until I tried to solder rifle parts. After three long nights and a floor full of solder I brought out the welder.

[rich pierce]

Tinning. Tin tin tin. Use a big soldering iron to tin.

[Scota4570]

Yeah,

Tin it.  Use a wad of steel wool with flux and solder to rub it in the heated parts.  Then wash, flux  ( with rosin flux if you can) .  Jig/ clamp the parts together. I put a dab of solder in a place I can see, to gauge when it melts and the heat is sufficient.  Heat the whole thing as evenly as you can.  Do not apply flame where you are soldering, heat from the backside.  When the indicator solder melts add more solder to fill any caps. 

Trying to solder clean pieces together without tinning first is much harder, often impossible.  If you get heat colors it is way too hot.

[Mike Brooks]

Being in the building maintenance field I did a lot of plumbing and soldering and found it was an essential skill. Transferring those skills to gunbuilding was seamless. I'd suggest you solder some plumbing parts together for practice.....or maybe not.

[RL]

Yeah,

Tin it.  Use a wad of steel wool with flux and solder to rub it in the heated parts.  Then wash, flux  ( with rosin flux if you can) .  Jig/ clamp the parts together. I put a dab of solder in a place I can see, to gauge when it melts and the heat is sufficient.  Heat the whole thing as evenly as you can.  Do not apply flame where you are soldering, heat from the backside.  When the indicator solder melts add more solder to fill any caps. 

Trying to solder clean pieces together without tinning first is much harder, often impossible.  If you get heat colors it is way too hot.

Is acetone good to clean with? After applying flux and solder with steel wool and then washing I can apply flux with the parts cooled?Then heat.

[Clark Badgett]

Thanks for all the replies. I've tried most of them at some point. Tried crazy glue, it popped loose really fast, got it to solder up once, came loose. Been trying to solder it since with no luck. Tried to tin the parts, no go. Maybe I'll take Mike's advice and go buy some plumbing parts and practice some more. I'm using plumbing solder, and since it refuses to melt before the part turns blue, I'm wondering if I have silver solder. Maybe I should try my electronics solder.

[JCKelly]

This reminds me of when the young guys in my family tell Ancient Grampa how easy, really easy, it is to set up his cell phone.  Grampa does not find it so

Hence, I have some perverted sympathy for you when I say it is easy to solder.

First, the strength of a soldered joint is very poor in tension, it is a shearing load that can be held by a soldered joint. You might "spot weld" but you ainagonna spot solder successfully.

THE STRENGTH OF THAT JOINT DEPENDS UPON THE SOLDER LAYER BEING VERY THIN. Solder itself is weak, the joint can nevertheless be very strong it it is thin. ("why" is a complicated mechanical metallurgy thing, just live with it)

It is quite beyond this Grampa's imagination what it is you are trying to do anyway  "...tang spot soldered onto my bolster..." Tang? Bolster?  Huh? "Spot solder"?

Anyway sand the thing bright - no need to file unless you wish to change the shape. Hold the two pieces together - first having smeared on whatever flux you are using. Heat it until flux melts or bubbles a bit. Then just touch the solder wire to it. You should get the metal just hot enuff that the solder melts and gets drawn into the joint by capillary action.

Try this on some scrap first, until these words make sense.

I happen to like the lead-free solder which is 98% tin 2% silver (98Sn 2Ag) The hardware I go to likes to dumb things down & not tell you what is in the solder, just Sales/Marketing gibberish. Anyway lots of them work, I just like tin-2%silver for what I do.

It might be nice to know what kind of solder & what flux you were trying.

[JCKelly]

Addendum

Acetone is not nice to breathe

Do your practice on whatever kind of metal you intend to use.

Copper and brass are easier to solder than is steel
    (me, I once soldered a proprietary stainless just to see if it could be done. Easy - sez Grampa)
If you use an acid flux, which should work well, wash it off.
With soap and water. So that widgit you working on doesn't rust or turn green.

[P.W.Berkuta]

Just spent the better part of an hour trying in vain to get my tang spot soldered onto my bolster. Clean, clean, clean, flux, heat, tang turn blue no solder. Wouldn't be so bad, but this is at least the 10th time I've failed. I can TIG weld, I've even managed to high temp solder a time or two, but this low temp stuff is kicking my rear end. I did manage to get it stuck together once, but it popped loose the first stroke of my file while trying to dress it with the barrel and bolster. Even the easy to use paste stuff has foiled me. 

Use JB weld to hold it together while you dress it. Use light strokes of the file and when done just heat up the JB weld and it comes apart with no problems then just clean off the JB.

[jerrywh]

 What kind of flux are you using?  The flux should match the solder. Solder flow towards the heat.

[Clark Badgett]

It might be nice to know what kind of solder & what flux you were trying.

I got a nice laugh out of your conclusions above. I hear you. The young kids at work think all those old manual mills and lathes are hard to run, and get all teary eyed when they have to hop on one that doesn't have a DRO. They become most nervous when they have to run the old G&L boring mill with nothing but levers.

Anyway, I'm using the solder from the plumbing section of Lowes. It my be Oatey brand but I'm not sure, it didn't say what the mix was IIRC. I got some water based flux and some kind that is green. Maybe I misunderstood Taylor in one of his build threads, but I was under the understanding that he used a spot of solder to hold the tang to the bolster of his Hawken barrel while he filed and inlet it.

[smylee grouch]

Terminology.  Are you trying to spot solder the tang to the back of the breech plug?  I'm not sure of your gun terms.

[bgf]

The new solder (lead free silver bearing solder, 430dF) is something like 5x stronger than the old soft solder, and 10x harder to use .  Even tinning can be tricky!  When possible, I clean and flux parts, then clamp together with a piece of solder I've beaten flat, then apply heat.  With luck, it'll stick on the first try, otherwise enough will stick to the parts to clean, flux, tin and try again. 

I know this is completely wrong way to do it, but when I ran out of the old stuff years ago, I found I'd just have to make the new stuff work.  The solder paste is also great, but expensive and comes in tiny tubes!

[Hungry Horse]

Most of the low temp high tensel  silver bearing solders have a specific flux that comes with the solder. If you aren’t using this specific flux, you’re wasting your time. I personally would not solder the tang to a breechplug. I would either weld it, or sweat braze it.

  Hungry Horse

[Clark Badgett]

Hungry Horse,
While welding it does sound rather appealing right now, I do want it to be removeable like a Hawken tang is sposed to work. If you only knew how many times I've thought "I can take this in to work and put a spot weld on it and it will hold until I cut it off", you would laugh.

Smiley,
I am just trying to get a spot of solder to hold it while I dress it and inlet it.

I might try the JB weld method just to get on with it.

[Mike Brooks]

I have used Force 44 from Brownells and the flux that goes with it. real easy to use. I always solder my hooked breeches together to inlet the breech.

 I also buy the old 50/50 solder at farm auctions when ever I see it. Super cheap.

[Turtle]

 I too struggled with soldering despite having done a lot of arc and oxy-acetylene welding. I now use the stuff(SOF?) that comes I a can as a paste with the flux mixed in. Done many fouler lugs with it with no failures. Just clean, brush it on, clamp and heat.

[T*O*F]

Any of the epoxies will work...JB, acraglas, 5 min, etc.  The best thing is when your finished, you can just hit the parts with your wire wheel and brush it off.  Don't beat yourself up on it.  Just do it the simplest way.

[Roger B]

I second Mike's post.  I use the Brownell's High Force with their flux without problem, which is saying something for me .
Roger B.

[P.W.Berkuta]

One problem with using solder is that the two surfaces MUST be flat and clean to each other . If not the solder will not form a strong bond with the two surfaces. Too much heat and you "fry" the flux and you HAVE to start over- period . Thick epoxy will flow into all the nooks and crannies of the two surfaces and give a good bond. If you want to extra secure then drill & tap for a 6-32 or 8-32 screw into the hook of the breach plug and thread it but don't go crazy with the depth of your tapped hole.

[TommyG]

Just ran into this the other day pinning my front barrel lug.  Sheet brass lug, my pin hole walked slightly leaving me with only about .015 - .020 of brass outboard of the pin.  Not really comfortable with hardly any thickness outboard of the hole, let alone for slotting it, I figured I'd give some lead free silver bearing solder a try.  Cleaned w/ steel wool & alcohol, fluxed & layed a bead of solder on the edge of the lug.  Worked out pretty nice.  Filed to final height & thickness.  I will say like others have mentioned, I used the Benzomatic stuff that comes as a pair - flux & solder.  Saved me from having to make & refit a new lug.

[Goo]

50/50 lead tin solder, zinc chloride flux tin it first don't burn it.