 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-05-28 00:39
Does anyone have a recommendation for what type of solder to use for filling in pits/scratches/gouges in metal parts prior to replating? I'm working on repairing a few microtuner-style barrels for metal clarinets that had seized up. Repairing the actual tuning mechanisms was pretty easy and involved only a few desolders and a long soak in an ultrasonic cleaner. Unfortunately someone had previously tried to "un-stick" the mechanism with a pair of pliers and gouged up the surface in a few places. The gouges are deep enough that I don't want to attempt to polish them out so I think filling them in is the way to go.
I would probably just do a thick coat of acid copper plate to fill in the gouges but unfortunately that would also destroy the logos on the barrels so I'd like to do a spot repair if possible.
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Author: paker
Date: 2012-05-28 01:50
Silver solder? After all, clarinet keys are routinely silver soldered. So we know silver solder can take the acid electroplating bath.
PS: I am not a professional repairer/restorer. Just a metallurgist.
Post Edited (2012-05-28 02:00)
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-05-28 05:44
paker wrote:
> Silver solder? After all, clarinet keys are routinely silver
> soldered. So we know silver solder can take the acid
> electroplating bath.
>
> PS: I am not a professional repairer/restorer. Just a
> metallurgist.
>
A silver-bearing solder would probably work well but the question is which one? There are some silver solders that melt at a relatively low temp and others that melt at a rather high temp. The ones with the higher melting temp are generally stronger but given that these won't be structural repairs I don't think that strength will be the deciding factor. I also have some concerns about using the high melting point solders on these thin pieces of brass sheet due to the risk of warping.
I'm hoping that it will be possible to use one of the lower melting point silver solders instead but I'm not sure how well these will handle a soak in the plating tank.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-05-28 09:34
> I'm hoping that it will be possible to use one of the lower melting point
> silver solders instead but I'm not sure how well these will handle a soak
> in the plating tank.
I'd probably try low-temp silver solder (or pure silver if possible), covered by one or two layers of rub-on silver plate before I'd put them in the tank.
--
Ben
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-05-28 10:02
tictactux wrote:
> I'd probably try low-temp silver solder (or pure silver if
> possible), covered by one or two layers of rub-on silver plate
> before I'd put them in the tank.
>
I may try the low temp silver solder on a scrap piece of brass as a test piece. I'd hate to have to try to remove the solder from the barrel if the plating didn't take.
As far as the "rub-on" silver plate goes I find the stuff to be pretty useless. The problem with it is that it will only deposit silver onto non-silver metals so you cannot build up the plating thickness beyond a micron or two. A layer this thin wears through extremely fast. I tried it in the past on one of my saxes where the plating had worn off of the keyguards from rubbing on the case. The rub on stuff wore through in less than a week.
A better solution is to do some brush plating but unfortunately the cyanide-free plating solutions that the average person can actually acquire have a slightly different color than silver plating done using the traditional cyanide process so it will be readily apparent where the touch-ups have been done.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-05-28 10:08
No, I meant to use the rub-on as a primer for later immersion plating, not as a substitute.
I can attest that the rub-on wears down pretty fast, I've plated a tip of a pinky touchpiece this way, and after a year it would show the copper underneath again. Hence the suggestion to use it only as a primer.
--
Ben
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Author: BobD
Date: 2012-05-28 13:18
A copper strike won't "fill in" the scratch......
Bob Draznik
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-05-28 16:45
BobD wrote:
> A copper strike won't "fill in" the scratch......
>
Nope. A copper strike plating is usually very thin. A subsequent plating in in acid copper would fill it in as this type of plating can be very thick but as I mentioned earlier this would also fill in the engraving which is something I want to avoid.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-05-28 18:58
The low temp silver solder sold by Ferees is very good at filling gaps and whilst much harder than tin/lead soft solder is relatively easily smoothed and polished.
I can't imagine the acid (cyanide?) used in a silver plate tank causing any problems, after all many parts on flutes are soft soldered onto the bodies prior to silver plating.
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