[ptjw7]

Hi I have been looking through catalogues to stock up on some silver solder and was surprised to find that there are now very few alloys to be found.
In the dim and distant past I remember that Johnson Mathey did a range of upto 6 alloys with MP of 800c down to 600c but the ones I find now are very reticent to quote the MP just simply saying high or low
Anyone know different!!

[Karl_T]

Do you have McMaster Carr on the right side of the pond?

I just checked, page 3207 of the online catalog has a HUGE selection.

Karl

[ptjw7]

No
Thanks will give it a look see
Over here we have a much smaller selection to deal with that is if they will deal with non business sales!!

Just checked from temp ranges only about 3 ranges!!
The ones I remember were in discrete ranges so that you used the highest MP first and worked down with subsequent joints must admit only done it with 3 for a copper trinket box buit that was in the late 50's!!!!

[Mcgyver]

ptjw, google model engineering and you should be able to navigate to some UK model engineering suppliers many of who have ss. You may be envious of NA industrial supply variety, but you’ve got it made so far as model engineering suppliers go.

I had to do some ss last 2 weekends ago and photographed some of the action. Why I'm posting this is to show that some cool work can be done with only 1 temp - not that your app won't require a range, but if you haven't ss'd in a while maybe this will give you some ideas.

The project was a tooth rest for a drill sharpening device i'm making. Here's a shot of the completed V block assembly for context, the tooth rest assembly and the housing. there are five separate ss joints in the housing, all done with the same temp silver solder and don in multiple operations.

The two techniques to share are 1) a good way to hold the work in alignment (there's some pics of a third hard i devised and 2) use small pieces of ss placed on the joint (that shot is actually the mark I model, but the point is made. the pieces stick with the flux and as the metal comes up to temp it wicks in perfectly

what this allows you to do is concentrate the heat only near the joint to be soldered, solder multiple joints at the same time and because you have a free hand, you can dab with a wet rag around earlier completed joints sort of as a heat sink.

hope this helps, i had the photo's already and seemed like a relevant place to share them

[ptjw7]

Thanks to all who replied.
I have found a UK supplier who has all that I will ever need http://www.cupalloys.com/content.php
they do small packs of most alloys will be sending for a selection soon
Peter