My first attempt at using HTS-2000 -- a disaster.

[Don52]

A friend at work had a bar on a sliding door for the past 40 years. Her sister, who has trouble getting around leaned on it too hard and it broke the pot metal end bracket. Recently I purchased some HTS-2000 soldering rods, so I attempted to solder it.

The instructions included with the kit stated the following:

Pot Metal, Galvanized and white Metal:

Work immediately in the flame without preheating the work surface. These surfaces will melt at approximately the same temperature of the rod. Then melt the rod in with them. When rebuilding pot metal, sometimes best results are obtained if you prepare a container of moist sand. Use the sand to hold and position various items to be rebuilt. Small tools such as a dental pick are useful for mixing the base metal with the HTS-2000. Before attempting repair of quality antique items, some time should be spent practicing on worthless pieces.

As you can see from the first picture, my attempt was a dismal failure. I used a Smith #0 oxyacetylene tip with a neutral flame. The solder didn't seem to stick to the base pot metal. I have read every post regarding soldering pot metal, but I am still missing something. Any help from someone that has done it, would be appreciated.

The second picture is the replacement bracket that I TIG welded, without difficulty.

Don

[ryanjones2150]

I've used something similar to that stuff in the past with limited success. What I did was as soon as I hit the piece with the torch (I used a plumber's torch) I started swiping the rod along the intended repair area. As soon as it started to transfer I just started building up the filler metal. Its certainly not as easy to do as the some of the videos on youtube seem to make it, but once you get the hang of it you won't have a problem. I think the stuff has a place and a use, but in the last 20 years, I've repaired one thing with the stuff. I also don't really see any reason why you couldn't make that solder repair with low flow temp silver solder. I had a candle stick holder that I repaired a few months back. I posted on here for some suggestions, that was one of them and it worked perfectly.

You could also make a sand mold and cast a new one if you had too. That's really not as hard as it sounds either. But it looks like your aluminum part will work out well enough.

[Don52]

Is this what you had in mind for a low temperature solder?

http://www.esslinger.com/kb430-low-temp-silver-solder-paste-10cc-syringe/?gclid=COq0l9a-7csCFQslvQodaeoEzA

Here is a link to Ryan's original post.

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/communities/mboard/forum/welding-projects/35267-free-candlestick-job

The other choice would be Muggy welds Alloy 1 with their heat control paste.

Don

[H80N]

Heat control paste....... try pre mixed drywall mud (the NON vinyl variety)

works great... and cheap

[ryanjones2150]

I ended up using some stuff called Stix solder. It was pretty cheap, although I can't remember where I got it. I originally bought it to solder a couple of lid handles back on old German beer steins a friend of mine had. Those lids were pewter and let me tell you, it doesn't take much heat to melt them down either! I just about turned them into scrap metal the first time I took the soldering torch to em! But that solder flowed really nice on both the beer steins and that candle stick doofloppy.