Soldering to spring steel?

[Arnak]

Hi Folks,

Just a quick question.

Is it possible soft solder steel to spring steel?

Thanks,

Arnak

[baggo]

I'm sure I've soldered spring steel in the past. Just clean it well with emery paper and use Bakers fluid as the flux. I often solder pieces of mild steel together to machine two identical items, both pieces being machined at once.

John

[mmaidnz]

Hi,Arnak.I presume you're asking if the spring steel will retain it's spring.It will,provided you don't overheat it.If the steel starts to go red,take the heat away,as that's too hot.
I"ve always soldered spring steel by tinning both components,like Baggo said using Bakers fluid.Once you have applied the solder,a quick wipe with a cotton rag will leave a nice coatof solder.Then "sweat "the bits together and you're done.Regards,Hans.

[Arnak]

Hi Guys,

Thanks very much for help.

It won't get to hot as I will use soft solder.

I just wanted to solder some steel to the springing on a Virginia to be able to attach the spring hangers.

That avoids cutting slots in the lower spring.

Arnak

[alanstepney]

I'm not sure I like the idea of soldering for that application.
I suspect that the constant flexing will soon weaken the bond and your springs wont be attached to anything!

You could possibly silver solder them, as the silver solder would have the strength needed, but the heat required would soften the spring, so you would then need to re-temper them.
That would require a fine balance between the heat needed to do that and what would melt the solder.

Slotting might be the easiest way.

[abby]

If silver soldering use a high melting point solder so that the parts can be tipped into a bucket of water whilst still at a good red heat , this will leave them hard enough for tempering back to the required condition , I have never done this with springs but have been succesful with soldered or brazed assemblies that need to be hardened.
Abby.

[Tel]

I would either start with a longer piece of stock and roll eyes on the ends before hardening OR anneal a piece of automotive leaf spring, mill the thing to shape - blocks, eyes, whatever included, then harden & temper in the usual way. BTW the 'usual way' for me to temper springs is to cover them with tallow and burn it off. Then quench

[spurley]

Hi Tel

Tallow must be easy to come by round your way?! ;D

Cheers

Brian

[Tel]

Erm, yes Brian - we kill a lot of our own meat.

Apart from that I have a largish tin full of the stuff from the local dog food factory

[Arnak]

Hi Folks,

Thanks again for the replies.

I see that I now have more food for thought and several options that may work.

I'll give it some thought and see which method works out for the best.

Thanks again for all the help.

Arnak

[SteveW]

Arnak,

Years ago I made a little cross bow using a number of piano wire lengths for the bow. It worked great but I started getting trouble with the wires separating so I used soft solder to bold them together.

The heat cycle needed removed all of the natural spring from the piano wire.

I would suggest some form of mechanical clamping method over any heat based process.

[Arnak]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for that info, I was hoping that soldering to the far end of the spring steel would not cause it to loose tension.

What I'd best do is try a piece and see how it goes.

Arnak

[hat]

Tel
I have never heard of tallow being used to temper steel - my only use of tallow has been to use it as a flux for soldering lead - I have a coffee jar full that ive had for 40 years! But this is something worth a try
Thank you. ;D

[SteveW]

Hat,

I saw in an old gun smithing book a while back what looked like an easy method of tempering springs. The usual quick quench from red hot followed a tempering cycle in a tray of burning oil. When the oil burns out quench again.

I think there was also all sorts of mystery on the oil being from a whale which sort dates the process.

I'll bet that red hot steel and solder aren't happy together.

[Tel]

hmmm... if youse reckon tallow is hard to get try boilin' down a whale and see wot happens to you

Several of my gunsmithing books recommend tallow (as well as whale oil) and it works. Still haven't tried the whale oil tho.

[chris vine]

Hi Arnak,

What I have done in the past is to clamp the bit of spring steel in between some largish bits of steel plate and then silver solder using a lot of heat from a Oxy Propane torch. That way only the very end which is being soldered loses its temper, the rest stays cool enough. Seeing as how all the bending stress is in the middle of a leaf, the ends will not deflect, even if soft.

Hope this helps.

Chris.