Soldering brass

[AlexThePalex]

Ok, I have two questions regarding soldering brass.

I am restoring an old table with a brass top and I've been working on it for the last week. It was originally given to my great grandfather by a Dutch brewery to celebrate the 50 year jubilee of his café. I had to take apart the wooden legs and glue them back together again. But that was the easy part. The hard part was polishing the table top and a bunch of accessories like ashtrays, a cigar box and a cigar cutter back to a shine. Took me a good 30 hours of polishing to get it all shiny again.

It was a lot of work, and it turned out great, except for one small detail. The brass lining of the table is made out of one piece that is soldered together at the ends, and the copper/brass polishing compound I used turned the solder into a very ugly and dark colour, almost black. I am trying to get it back to a nice silvery colour again, but I have no clue how. Sanding with 1200 grit works a bit, but the weld is so unevenly shaped that it is impossible to get it all.

Does anybody know how you can get this weld back to a nice colour?

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The second part is where I need to do some soldering myself. Part of the set is a cigar box and unfortunately the solder of the hinge has come loose. It is very thin, like a wire with some thin tubes around it. I'm very familiar with soldering electronics and copper pipes, but not something like this. I have this big soldering iron and I wonder if that is good enough to do the job or do I need something other, like a small burner to do this? Any tips?

Thanks in advance.

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[peter halle]

What absolutely beautiful stuff!  You might want to send a message to Frank Pellow.  He did all those stained glass projects and he might have some tips or answers for you.

Peter

 

[Michael Kellough]

The nicest lead solder ever gets is silverish and it doesn't stay that way for long.

It would be best to remove that old solder with heat (the joint wasn't soldered very well anyway) and re-solder with silver solder. The silver solder would require a good bit more heat than lead solder. If you can't get enough heat maybe you could lead solder on a piece of bent brass behind the joint to reinforce it so you scarcely need any solder on the front.

You've got it looking so good except for that one bit, might as well go all the way.

 

[Stone Message]

Hi Alex,

That brass work is lovely and perhaps deserves a specialist restorer if it is within your budget. I sometimes watch antique programmes here in the UK and one frequently sees amazing items that have been damaged or even ruined by a non specialist's repair.

Looking at the solder on the table I would guess that it has already been repaired once as it is nowhere near the standard of the overall piece. I seem to remember that my father used silver solder for work like that. Ordinary solder has low strength and oxidizes within hours to a dull grey. Silver solder will not spread as much and stays shiny.

Peter

 

[AlexThePalex]

It would be best to remove that old solder with heat (the joint wasn't soldered very well anyway) and re-solder with silver solder. The silver solder would require a good bit more heat than lead solder. If you can't get enough heat maybe you could lead solder on a piece of bent brass behind the joint to reinforce it so you scarcely need any solder on the front.

You've got it looking so good except for that one bit, might as well go all the way.

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately soldering with the high temperature of a torch is not an option because it is completely backed by wood. 

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The only soldering I need and want to do is on the hinge and lid of the cigar box.

 

[AlexThePalex]

That brass work is lovely and perhaps deserves a specialist restorer if it is within your budget. I sometimes watch antique programmes here in the UK and one frequently sees amazing items that have been damaged or even ruined by a non specialist's repair.

It may look all nice and shiny, but it is not a valuable item. The cost for such a repair would be many times greater than it's worth so that's not really a consideration for me. Smoking tables like this don't go for much more than €100. Back in the 30-50'ties everybody had one of these. It also has no sentimental value for me, nor for my mother who ownes it. I'm cleaning out her attic to see which things can go because it has become quite clogged with stuff over the years, and I'm just trying to make this set look presentable so we can sell it. My mother inherited it, but  though my mother has very loving memories from when she lived in her grandfather's café with all her family during the war, she never liked this table as it was not her taste. Nor mine either.            

Looking at the solder on the table I would guess that it has already been repaired once as it is nowhere near the standard of the overall piece. I seem to remember that my father used silver solder for work like that. Ordinary solder has low strength and oxidizes within hours to a dull grey. Silver solder will not spread as much and stays shiny.

It sure looks as if it was a crude repair, done badly. But I'm not looking to get this fit for a museum, I just want it to be less obvious than the ugly black it has become because of the copper polish. Before I polished it it was a dull grey, and you didn't notice it much. But this black just makes it look like a turd on a mirror.    

 

[peter halle]

If it isn't valuable and you just want it to look better - if the color is the issue, go look into sign paint.  Go get a gold and a tiny paintbrush.  If the globs need to be dealt with first, go to an electonics store and get de soldering tape / braid.  Heat up the solder and use the braid.  Then redo and color.

Peter

 

[Andywoj]

Alex, there is a newer generation of solder for use in fresh water pipes. It has very little lead content if any and a lot of tin. It stays a very bright silver. You can use a solder iron and a solder sucker to remove most of the old solder. Heat up whatever solder is left behind with the solder iron and quickly wipe with a damp rag to remove as much of the remaining solder. Use an electronic flux when you solder. It is not as corrosive as regular copper pipe flux.
Hope this helps.

Andy