pin holes in the solder at guard

D

DHackney

Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Messages
178
Hi folks,

I just about finished a really nice (imho) drop point, complete with a sambar stag handle and big horn sheep throat, when I noticed that, after cleaning up the guard, I have a couple of small (but noticeable) pin holes at the guard/blade junction. Dog gone it! I put ALOT of time
into making sure I had a good fit with the guard to try to minmize the amount of solder used.

Is the anyting I can do now or it is all over but the shoutin' :confused: ?

Many thanks,
Dana Hackney
monument, co
 
Try reheating and dragging a very clean sewing needle (held in a pin vise) across the joint.

You also may get away with reheating and blowing the solder out of the joint with a little compressed air. I have done this on occasion when the FU-Fairy visits. :rolleyes: Get yourself an air gun that has a very fine tube tip. Bend the tip to suit your personal ergonomics and use gentle pressure and just enough heat to force the solder out. Then try again. Its a crying shameful mess I know, but you are essentially effed anyway, right?
 
you can sometime use reg solder that will melt at a lower temp than the silver solder and fill it with-out the rest dropping out on you. if you can sink the heat away from the stag.

from this point on, for later sakes get yourself some silver solders with different melting points and use the higher temp first or don't make pin holes..it causes you more work don't you know :D

most of this what I'm saying is with no handle on..
I just about finish those parts just for that reason I hate surprises.. :grumpy: :)
 
The ideal gap for solder or braze is .003" .That is the strongest and is the best to get capillary action. Very clean surfaces, feed solder from one point and the solder will wick up throughout the joint.Jeff's repair methods sound good.
 
mete said:
The ideal gap for solder or braze is .003" .That is the strongest and is the best to get capillary action. Very clean surfaces, feed solder from one point and the solder will wick up throughout the joint.Jeff's repair methods sound good.
Click to expand...

I'd add solder will wick to twords the heat
 
Here's a trick I've used in almost the same case....but you might have the added problem of gettting too much heat on the handle.

Get some Tix silver solder from www.brownells.com ...it flows at 275f rather than the 425f that most flows at. Lay a tiny clip at the pinhole and apply heat till it melts. I've done this and it works very well.

If you get the heat right at the pinhole and wrap everything else in a water soaked cloth...you might be ok
 
Greg Covington said:
Here's a trick I've used in almost the same case....but you might have the added problem of gettting too much heat on the handle.

Get some Tix silver solder from www.brownells.com ...it flows at 275f rather than the 425f that most flows at. Lay a tiny clip at the pinhole and apply heat till it melts. I've done this and it works very well.

If you get the heat right at the pinhole and wrap everything else in a water soaked cloth...you might be ok
Click to expand...

there you go :thumbup: :)
 
When faced with a pit that can not be resoldered due to the handle already being assembled,try this.Take a piece of tix solder and snip a piece off about 1/16" long.Clean the pit up as good as possible and place the snippet of solder over the pit.Using a brass burnisher (basically a polished brass awl),burnish the solder into the pit hole.With a little rubbing the solder will fuse with the old solder and fill the pit.Another cosmetic filler for unwanted pits/cracks is liquid steel or liquid aluminum.Rub in a very small amount ,and when dry,burnish the excess off with the brass burnisher.
 
I've tried Stacy's approach with Tix also and it worked well. The thing about Tix is that it is very fine....thin like the lead you see in automatic pencils.

I was at a local welding store and they had some stuff there that the guy at the counter said was used to fill in imperfections in castings and molds. Came in small pint paint cans and was grey silver....but would polish up to a very high sheen...like silver solder...and had adhesive properties too. I wish I knew the name of the stuff. I think it would be a great alternative to solder and Jb Weld for some applications

****UPDATE****...the stuff was called Lab-Metal...I might give it a try.
 
Well I learn something new every day! Stacy, and Greg... both great ideas. Thank you! :thumbup:
 
for the suggestions. I'll make really sure that I do the guard cleanup BEFORE
attaching the handle material - what a dummy!

I might give that Tix solder I try. Maybe with keeping the rest of the components wet and cool and confining the heat just at the pin holes, it'll take.

Thanks again,
Dana
 
Another way you could fix the hole withough ruining the handle material is by using a woodburning pen. You can heat up a small area with precise control and just move some of the solder around without making a big mess.
 
was there a "free change-your-user-title" day I missed out on? :D :p



tip = you can use aluminum as a heatsink to keep heat away from the blade. Just sandwich the blade between two pieces clamped together. Had to do that to repair a solder joint a month or so ago...
 
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