I have various colors of metal powders that we added to varnish in
the old days of set painting–different brasses and copper along with
the more familiar aluminum.
Would it work to use the brass as solder for rich low brass?
joanne
asheville, NC
Would it work to use the brass as solder for rich low brass?
Hard to say without knowing what those powders are actually made of.
But it’s really easy for you to find out. Try a test with some scraps
of the low brass.
Quicker than asking on Orchid, and you then have your answer, or at
least, more informed details to ask questions about if something
doesn’t behave as expected.
Peter
Joanne,
the main difference in the brasses is obviously the alloy but
realistically the amount of Zn (zinc) in it that sets the group of
copper zinc, and sometimes tin, older ones (and I would think some
stock that can still be had today) contains lead - while "white
brasses contain some nickel ! RLB has 15% zinc ordinarily (tomback is
what we used to call Rich Low brass) and is used for jewellery- Low
brass has about 20% zinc- and Red brasses 5%.Almost all solders
contain some part zinc, so adding a “powder” you have on hand to make
your own colour matched solder seems like a fairly easy proposition
provided the powder has a copper zinc and perhaps tin alloy and
whatever other metals in it to maintain a ductile and yet malleable
outcome. So theoretically, yes it will work not knowing what "powder"
it is you want to add to make your solder. If you’re talking about
using the powder straight, without a binder say, of zinc oxide paste
or something - whatever recipe you are following, is a little
trickier as the alloyed powder may have iron in it which could give
you some strange results when you attempt to pickle it. if you are
going to clean it in a sodium bisulphate based solution at all…
I wish I knew a bit more about the choices you had and the project
(the actual joins you need to make) to recommend something specific.
hope this helps anyway. rer