….Currently rolling and silver soldering brass clock spring barrels. I found that I had run out of clean steel wire for twisting around the barrel to close up the join ready for silver soldering, and used some wire that was passed to me…it is already coated with rust….but not enough to prevent the use of the wire.

….Once the soldering is over there was no wire to remove from the outside of the joint because the rust effectively resists the flux/solder! So, lightly rusted steel wire will now be my main stay for securing joints and joins prior to silver soldering.

some interesting stuff turning up in this thread!…….

A couple of points;………I already DO use a hearth (made from firebricks that are very cheaply purchased from the Wilkinson supermarket chain) but the Thermalite blocks source is a good one as they are very light weight which can be useful. The reference to my charcoal forge is purely to preheat larger items up to near soldering/brazing temp…I have found that a really clean heat source is vital or silver solder will fail for sure!

The clock spring barrels that I made this last week are 1/8 inch wall thickness,..are annealed first (from scrap sheet) then rolled by hand around a former, accurately jointed, and silver soldered…….the rolling and any subsequent manipulation tends to work harden the resulting barrel….so they are not used in a soft state. I have been making barrels like this for some years and these were made in the workshop of Epping Forest Horology Club with much interest….i videoed the process and once I have done some basic editing will post the vid either here or on youtube.

I have found the rusty wire to work well, flux or not!…….previously there was always some steel wire to remove from the join……Keep the comments coming as it's all good!

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 28/02/2016 21:34:30

Hmmmmmn……….. I was quoted £97 plus VAT for half a metre for thinner wall tube than this!