Problem with brass to brass joint

Heavy Melder · Post by **Heavy Melder** » Wed May 30, 2012 8:24 am

Howdy.

Have a problem I've been beating my brain over, and have a couple of solutions in mind, I thought I'd bounce it off the forum and see what else might come up.

I'm (RE)building the Fantastic Plastic 1/350 botany bay and am at the part on the aft end of the ship, where the solar panels/collector/thingiemabobbers come off the engine section. I'm using 1/16" brass rod for the out rigger bits. The problem is that I have to join it together at 90 degree angle to another piece of brass 1/16" rod to support the panels. Naturally I want a good solid joint, or as solid as I can get.

My ideas for a solution:
A) Epoxy. I would of course file out the end of piece of brass to fit the round of the other piece of brass to get the best possible fit, but it's still a butt joint. This is the easiest method I have in mind.
Problem: I'm not sure epoxy would be all that strong a joint with these materials and the nature of the joint. Am I being over worried about that?

B) Solder the joint. Same as above, file it to a best possible fit.
Problem: Don't have anything to solder with so I would have to get someone else to do the work. I'm assuming this joint would be stronger then the epoxy joint, but I'm not sure by how much if at all.

C) Drill a 1/32" hole in the end of the outrigger portion of the 1/16" rod and a hole in the brass portion supporting the panels and use a 1/32" piece of the rod to pin them together. This increases the surface area of the joint quite a bit and would be a very strong joint.
Problem: Not too sure I could pull this off with my present equipment, plus drilling the end of the 1/16" rod would be very hard to do, not to mention I'm not sure a 1/32" bit would up to the task, but I could be wrong about that.

Anyway, I could be over thinking this whole thing, but I thought I'd see if anybody out there had any insights or thoughts on what I came up with so far.

Thanks for your time whoever you may be.

kenlilly106 · Post by **kenlilly106** » Wed May 30, 2012 11:44 am

Solder would be my first choice since that's what it does best, attach metals together. I thought about brazing or a silver solder but the melting points of both are so high you'd probably warp the rods first.

You're on the right track with filing the joint to get it to fit as tight as possible.

Ken

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Wed May 30, 2012 3:13 pm

File & solder, it's your best & strongest bet. If you don't have a soldering iron, get one or buy a butane torch and experiment.

Rocketeer · Post by **Rocketeer** » Wed May 30, 2012 3:48 pm

Kylwell wrote:File & solder, it's your best & strongest bet. If you don't have a soldering iron, get one or buy a butane torch and experiment.

With plenty of flux.

Heavy Melder · Post by **Heavy Melder** » Wed May 30, 2012 5:05 pm

Kylwell wrote:File & solder, it's your best & strongest bet. If you don't have a soldering iron, get one or buy a butane torch and experiment.

hrmmm.....mini butane torch? hadn't thought of that....

Umi_Ryuzuki · Post by **Umi_Ryuzuki** » Wed May 30, 2012 8:37 pm

56% silver solder if you can work it...
Strongest joint you can get. If you can flow it properly, there
will be very little filing or grinding to clean up the joint.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/inde ... 78.2629346

asdqwe · Post by **asdqwe** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:22 am

Chacal · Post by **Chacal** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:58 pm

You might not even need a mini butane torch: an ol' cigarette lighter oughta do it.