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soldering/brazing brass rod for dollshouse stairs

T

tracerman

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Advice needed - I need to make some dollshouse stair-rails , I imagine brass rod of about 2 or 2.5mm dia , horizontal top and bottom rails perhaps in slightly larger dia , say 3mm . My question is whether it would be ok to cut all the components , in a jig , then " solder" . I am not expecting that my electric soldering iron would be suitable ( comments welcome) but could I heat up the joints with my aerosol-powered blow lamp ( the one we use for lighting the garden incinerator or creme broulet ) ? . It will all be painted black so I'm not worried about discolouration . Its been a long time since doing any serious metalwork so any advice welcome .
Steve
 
I'm no expert but small size brass, a blowlamp and solder go very well together. You'll need a tin of paste flux - available from Screwfix or anywhere that sells plumbing stuff. Any lumps will clean up easily with wet and dry, then disappear under the paint.
 
Given the sizes you are talking about a soldering iron and electrical flux cored solder should do it. might need a 25W or more iron or just a lot of patience getting enough heat out of a smaller iron.
 
As suggested a decent soldering iron will do it. It doesn't have to be brass rod though and whatever material you use a 2 part epoxy will work as well.

When my daughter was little, a very long time ago I refurbished an old dolls house and came up with the idea of using some scrap 2.5mm electrical wire for balustrades, I twisted 3 strands together to form the balusters, 4 for the handrails and 6 for the newel posts if I remember correctly, copper is very easy to work and solder. Once I'd shaped the components, some of which were curved, I let the solder run the length of the twists which made them strong and stiff, you need 3 hands though. ;) They came out really well and I thought looked better than plain metal.

If you wanted to do it in wood look at toothpicks and skewers. there are a number of different lengths and thicknesses available and they're strong.
 
Andy T - I have some decades-old paste flux and also the electrical cored flux type to I shall be experimenting .
Robert - I'll'l check the wattage of my small electrical iron . Would the electrical cored flux be ok with the blow lamp or would that be too fierce ? .

Lons - thanks for those ideas . Actually we started with the toothpicks and wooden balustrades scenario but the ideas are in a state of flux ( sorry ). We might come back round to the toothpicks . The epoxy has also been considered , its going to depend in the end on the availability of suitable metal parts and cost but its already proving to be an interesting journey .
Thanks for those thoughts .
Steve
 
tracerman":1jb98ksc said:
Robert - I'll'l check the wattage of my small electrical iron . Would the electrical cored flux be ok with the blow lamp or would that be too fierce ? . .
Steve
Click to expand...

You may need some of the old flux to stop the surface oxidising in the flame and take the flame away as you apply the electrical solder but should be fine.
 
If you can get hold of one of those small gas blowlamps that they use in cooking or craft jewellery repairs they are more efficient than an iron Steve, I'm sure you can get cheap ones and they're useful to have around anyway.
Just a little practice and you'll be soldering like a pro. Here are some flowers I made as an experiment from old copper tube last year.
 

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Wow!
Orher people see scrap, you see flowers. Impressive job.
 
If you scale things up to using copper water cylinders ... something to aspire to : Graculus sculptures, I think his work is fantastic. I think it is mostly mig welded rather than soldered.

For the original question, sounds like it is at the crossover between a big old soldering iron and a small blowlamp.
 
For a multipart assembly such as the op is proposing having only just enough heat localised on the current joint is key to stop the joints already made falling apart. Either an iron or a torch with the tiniest of flames

Not an easy job IMHO

Bob
 
Sheffield Tony":2tf6h7dt said:
If you scale things up to using copper water cylinders ... something to aspire to : Graculus sculptures, I think his work is fantastic. I think it is mostly mig welded rather than soldered.
Click to expand...

Those are amazing but you would have to hide them away in parts of the northeast or the scrapies will steal them.
 
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