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Coupling rods

Started by MikeWilliams, Jul 22 2011 13:44

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IanT

By coincidence - the subject of silver soldering stainless steel is mentioned in fair detail in the 'Postbag' section of Model Engineer this week (No 4459 page 42).

In summary, the (common) zinc bearing solders are not really suitable for soldering the 300 series of austenitic stainless steel. It's likely the SS will crack due to zinc "embrittlement". The second drawback is that they are also prone to "interfacial" corrosion, which can result in the complete failure of the joint. The writer recommends use of Johnson Matthey 'Argobraze 56' for stainless steels (which contains indium) although it sounds like this product is not without its own problems too.

Whether these issues with SS would be a real problem with the kinds of application we are usually involved with when using SS (e.g. motion work) - I don't know. I don't really like working with SS (it's often not easy to machine or tap) and for small parts where mild steel or brass might not be suitable for reasons of corrosion or appearance then I imagine nickel silver could be a viable (and nicer) alternative - even in our scale.

PS - I've only got to stay awake for another two hours now and then I can get off to bed!

Regards,

Ian T
Nothing's ever Easy - At least the first time around.