Subject: Re: Weild ? Solder

From: [email-masked] (James Foster x2912)
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 15:31:01 GMT

Welding is melting the metal that you are joining so that
it flows together and forms one piece.  You usually have
to have filler rods of the same (or similar) alloy to
help fill in the joint and actually manipulate the molten
metal to get it to flow together properly.

Soldering is when you use a lower melting point alloy that
is capable of bonding to the metals you are trying to
solder.  In soldering two copper wires together the 
tin/lead solder adheres to the surface of the copper very
well and ties the joint together.  Silver solder is the
same process but using a higher melting and stronger alloy
that usually contains a large percentage of silver.  There are
many other alloys used for high temperature soldering (which
is usually called brazing).  

For your question:  In addition to temperature you need
a quantity of heat to weld or braze.  A small torch that 
can get to 5k degrees won't do you much good if it can't 
put out enough heat at that temperature to get the parts
hot enough.  If this is one of those small torches that
uses little cylinders of oxygen and butane (like those
sold at Radio Shack) it will probably be able to weld 
small pieces and braze slightly larger ones.  A propane
or MAPP torch will be able to braze small pieces but not
weld them.  You can use silver solder or other brazing 
alloy to join two rods if they are steel.  If they are
aluminum don't bother trying 'cause it won't work.

If you are trying to do a repair or modification on a 
critical part of a firearm then I'd strongly advise 
against it unless you have a real good idea as to what
you are doing.  Brazing heat treated parts will screw
yp their heat treatment, and while silver brazing is 
quite strong it shouldn't be used for repair of high
stress parts (don't try to fix a broken locking lug
this way).  You might want to take it to a gunsmith
or at least ask for repair information on rec.guns.

---

From: [email-masked] (Kathreen Kruse)
Date: 12 Apr 1994 03:16:32 GMT

Don't do it! if you don't know enough you'll probably screw up the heat
treat (temper) in some critical part of the gun which could coust you eyes
or fingers I've done a lot of gunsmithing it's something you should learn
with a pro looking over your shoulder I can't teach it by computer.
           Martin Kruse