Silver soldering a cabane

[Merco 61]

Hello,

I,m about to join the components forming the cabane on a 1/4 scale SE5.I,ve come up with a jigging system to hold the piano wire in correct register but still really need to bind some of the joints with fine copper wire for accuracy. My silver soldering is usually pretty good.Question:will the use of the copper wire spoil the joint? I,m using Easiflo solder. Just a domestic butane torch,no oxy.

As this job has to be done with the cabane fixed to the fuselage,I,m quite apprehensive about a roaring blowlamp four inches from all that woodwork,so some wet towels will be in place as protection. It would really make my day if someone would tell me not to bother and that good binding and ordinary solder will be strong enough.

[Denis Watkins]

I use these now, from eBay, all sizes, cable ferrules, with soft solder

[Trevor Crook]

They look brilliant, Denis.

Merco, isn't there a risk that the heat from silver soldering may cause the piano wire to lose its temper, ie become soft and bendy? I'm sure there are folks out there more expert than me who can give more confident advice.

[Ernie]

Trevor is absolutely right, The heat needed to get silver solder to melt will, surely take the temper out of the wire.

Id leave the silver solder alone, and bind and use soft solder, or the wee handystraps look very interesting

ernie

[Jon H]

I would use soft solder for the cabanes but use silver solder for things like undercarriages. I have never had any trouble with the piano wire going soft

[Martian]

Posted by Denis Watkins on 09/11/2017 06:48:37:

I use these now, from eBay, all sizes, cable ferrules, with soft solder

Dennis any chance of a link to these ferrules ,I've searched but have not been able to find them. Thanks

[Denis Watkins]

There you go bud

**LINK**

[DaveyP]

Denis, I to thank you for the link, the ebay search just didn't find them

[Martian]

Thank you Denis

[onetenor]

The handy straps look good but is there any sort of guide as to what gauges will go into which strap? However if you do silver solder the joint make arrangements to rapidly cool it. e.g. a water squirter , a small bowl of water you can drop the joint into or splash from it .Possibly ice cubes you can slap against it. This will save your temper and the wire's too. A mini blow torch / lamp will do the job but still needs care to keep anything out of direct line of the flame as intense heat will be projected a long way beyond the visible flame . Go on ask me how I know! Heat sinks can be clipped onto the wires to reduce heat absorption and risk of losing the temper. However I'll say what I always say 1) Practice 2 ) Experiment. Which amounts to the same thing I suppose.

[Trevor Crook]

Onetenor, it looks like you just have to convert swg to mm, as the crimps are sized for rope diameter in mm. Plenty of conversion charts on line. I'll probably order a few different sized packs to play with.

Good find Denis.

[Denis Watkins]

Lads, don't Forget

When constructing complex enclosed forms using ferrules,

To slide them onto the wire as you are forming/bending up

As a point will come where your fabrication won't allow you to slip them in

Also use them for undercarriage wires, but silver solder heavy forms

[Engine Doctor]

As an alternative to the copper ferrules you could try wrapping tinned steel , copper or brass sheet around the joint for a neat strong finish using ordinary solder If tinned joint is tacked together then wrapped and soldered no need to worry about fitting ferrules prior to soldering.. Tinned sheet should go around at least 1 1/2 turns as strength is in the overlap. Either a good powerful soldering iron or gentle use of a small blow lamp will give plenty of heat without destroying the tempering using ordinary solder and an aggressive flux like Bakers Fluid. The kitchen blow lamps are very good for this sort of job and are cheap on the net. As Onetennor say beware of the invisible part of the flame !