Soldering "Britania Metal"

Started by Doneldon, May 08, 2013, 12:11:16 AM

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Doneldon

Does anyone have any experience soldering the so-called "Britannia Metal?"

I will be building several of the Model Expo Civil War cannon models for a display in my portable Civil War museum. The metal looks like a variety of pewter to me but I really don't know much about its metalurgy beyond what I found in a quick web search. My fear is that I'll melt the model since I believe that one of the features of Britannia is that it melts at quite a low temperature. Does anybody know what kind of solder to use (I assume not acid core) or whether a gun or iron will work best? Or should I just plan to use CA, which I really don't like, liquid steel or epoxy?

Thank you in advance.
                                      -- D

daveb

Britannia Metal is a form of pewter with a melting point of around 255 deg C.

This site has useful information with regard to composition and properties of metals
http://www.csudh.edu/oliver/chemdata/alloys.htm

Dave

Doneldon

Dave-

Thank you for the table. I assume from it that I should be thnking about
using a high tin content solder or some form of low temperature solder.
I'll bet that match solder will work.
                                                       -- D