Silversol Solder

[gregory1]

I was given a couple rolls of Silversol Premium Grade High Silver Solder (lead free) There is no / percentage marked on the rolls
is this stuff any good for adding to my ww to get better mold fill out?
Thanks

[bruce drake]

Hey! Ask a gunsmith what he'll pay for it first! Silver Solder is too a gunsmith what flux is to a caster!

Bruce

[runfiverun]

there are varying grades of silver solder.
i had some black moly type lube i wanted to [surprise here] make boolit lube from but didn't know much about it i went to the manufacturers site and found what i needed.
this has also worked with mystery rolls of solder [stupid 5% tin solder]

[gregory1]

Thanks Guys

[Red River Rick]

Gregory1:

What diameter is the solder?

RRR

[gregory1]

IT says 3MM = I would say1/4 inch.

[cbrick]

I would see what it sells for first, you may be able to buy pure bar tin and still come out money ahead.

Rick

[Gohon]

I've seen them with a make up of 4% silver, 95.5% tin and 0.5% copper........... and 96.5% tin, 2.5% bismuth, 0.5% silver and 0.5% copper. As said there are many different combination's that are used and even zinc is in some but very little like .5%. Mostly all tin of about 96% so I doubt any combination of the other metals would have any effect on your casting. Certainly the copper and silver won't and even 0.5% zinc shouldn't be a concern considering the small amounts of wire you'll be using.

[runfiverun]

gohon silversolder is used for repairs of things like shotgun ribs.
or bbls on double rifles to hold them in place after regulating the bbls poa/poi.

[Jim]

Not being able to see the product, I can't say for sure, but I think there's a breakdown in communications here. "Silver solder", per se, is bronze colored, extremely hard and expensive as all get out. And it's not likely to be 3 mm in diameter. I think what you have is lead free plumber's solder. That's an entirely different product.

[Lloyd Smale]

Like jim said theres real silver solder which is very expensive and probably not going to help your casting much other them maybe making your bullets a bit shinier. Then theres lead and tin based solder that has a bit of sliver added. The later works great for adding tin to solder. Theres not enough silver in it to really add or take away any benifit.

[Gohon]

The silver solder sold today in most hardware stores is lead free with various combination's of metals as stated. The move towards removing lead from all products will eventually see all lead free. The small amount of silver added is to improve strength. The addition of other metals such as bismuth and copper is to improve wettability. Indium is sometimes added to improve ductility. Zinc is uncommon and normally found if at all, in cheap foreign brands to reduce cost and lower the melting point. Most companies avoid zinc because of it's corrosive properties.

If you go to Lowe's or Home Depot Hardware you will find their lead free silver solder made up of 96% tin with the remainder containing silver, copper and Indium. That's the way they advertise it....Lead free Silver Solder. Now whether the this would be consider silver solder or not I don't know but with it being 96% tin it will help casting if tin is wanted. Oatey and Alphametals puts out some lead free stuff that is 95% tin and 5% antimony. Great stuff if you can find it on sale.

I didn't even know Silver Sol was a company. I thought it was the name of a medication?

[gregory1]

Thanks for the info guys...I will ask him what was the solder was for...the only thing that isn't marked on the roll is the percentage % of tin.The sticker on the plastic spool is all there nothing rubbed or tore off.

[Oldtimer]

What Jim said. The only silver solder I ever fooled with came in a stick that was flat. It would tarnish because of the silver content, and was very hard. A propane torch wont melt it. Most guys use mapp gas torches to melt it. Used a lot in the refrigeration business on copper pipe. I dont think the stuff I have would melt in a lead pot. May be other kinds out there, I just not familiar with them. Bob

[AZ-Stew]

3mm is close to 1/8 inch. 1/4 inch is 6.35mm.

Do an Internet search for the stuff. You never know what you might find. If you can locate the manufacturer, call them and ask what it's composed of.

Regards,

Stew

[JIMinPHX]

I used to use a lot of silver solder on high pressure helium manifolds in medical equipment. For the most part, I used 45% silver content "silvaloy". There are all different types of silver solder out there. They have wildly varying component contents. I've seen Kester sell solder with 3% silver & call it silver solder. I've seen 0.5% silver called silver bearing solder.

Silver solder (the real stuff) can be round or flat. I've seen it as small as .020" diameter in a round. I've used 1/16 x 3/16 flat. I mostly used 1/8" round. If the stuff you have is 3mm, that should be close to 1/8". not 1/4".

See what temperature it melts at. I used to have to use an oxy-acetylene torch to silver solder. Propane torches would not melt the stuff that I had. Post a picture of the label on the roll if you can.

[sagacious]

I was given a couple rolls of Silversol Premium Grade High Silver Solder (lead free) There is no / percentage marked on the rolls
is this stuff any good for adding to my ww to get better mold fill out?
Thanks

Gregory,
Note that the term "silver solder" is often used loosely.

Silver solder is a description properly applied to a low-temp alloy usually of tin/copper/silver, and most commonly used for soldering copper or copper-bearing alloys, such as residential copper plumbing.

Silver brazing wire is also sometimes referred to as "silver solder." But silver brazing wire is usually an alloy of copper and silver and other metals. It melts at much higher temperatures and is for brazing a variety of metals, and for uses such as brazing a front sight onto a gun barrel.

To my knowledge, silver brazing wire is not usually marked "lead free." It sounds like you have silver solder. If that's what you have, then yes, it can be added to your lead to help get better fill-out when pouring bullets. I have used silver solder for exactly this purpose. Treat it as tin. I usually get the benefits I need by adding only about 1/2% by weight-- a little goes a long way-- but you can add up to a percent or two depending on your alloy and pouring project.

Hope this helps, good luck!

[Jim]

Not suggesting that anyone else doesn't, but I know for a FACT that JIMinPHX knows what he's talking about. I get much too O/C about terminology. I'm a hair splitter when it comes to semantics. PHX Jim, me an' you need to get hooked up and do a disertation on this. Maybe, if we do a good job, we can get the mods to make it a sticky.
There's lead free solder with silver in it and there's silver solder. They are as different as June Bugs and Cape Buffalo.
This ain't good. I'm goin' nuts over this and it ain't important.

[gregory1]

Hi Jim and other fellow members
Thanks for all the info...I don't have a camera or I would of posted a picture.I will try some in my next casting adding 1-2% in the mix and see what happens.I haven't seen the person who gave me the rolls to ask him what it was used for.
sagacious I will give it a try.

Thanks

[runfiverun]

if it is the high tin content stuff even a reular cigarette lighter will make it melt in a second or two.

[sagacious]

Not suggesting that anyone else doesn't, but I know for a FACT that JIMinPHX knows what he's talking about. I get much too O/C about terminology. I'm a hair splitter when it comes to semantics. PHX Jim, me an' you need to get hooked up and do a disertation on this. Maybe, if we do a good job, we can get the mods to make it a sticky.
There's lead free solder with silver in it and there's silver solder. They are as different as June Bugs and Cape Buffalo.
This ain't good. I'm goin' nuts over this and it ain't important.
Jim,
Thank you for your comments. I'm sure JIMinPHX knows what he says.

I have had the pleasure to have worked with the good folks at Wolverine Joining Technologies, and I still use two types of their SILVALOY alloy. But that's quite definitely a brazing alloy, and not a solder, and is labeled and marketed as such. SILVALOY "High-Silver" alloys are all brazing alloys and not solders. I worked with both silver solders and silver brazing alloys for a long time, and simply wanted to draw a distinction between solder and brazing alloy. In this case it appears to be a relevant and practical distinction for the questioner. Information on SILVALOY alloys can be found here: http://www.silvaloy.com/hiag.php You'll note that the solders and brazing alloys are separate categories. I hope that clears up any misunderstanding.

Both the silver braze and silver solder we use show the percent of silver on the packaging label. But only silver solder-- with tin-- will melt at temps low enough to be used for alloying with lead.

Just trying to clear up any misunderstanding. Hope it all works out. Good luck!

[Jim]

Jim,
Thank you for your comments. I'm sure JIMinPHX knows what he says.

I have had the pleasure to have worked with the good folks at Wolverine Joining Technologies, and I still use two types of their SILVALOY alloy. But that's quite definitely a brazing alloy, and not a solder, and is labeled and marketed as such. SILVALOY "High-Silver" alloys are all brazing alloys and not solders. I worked with both silver solders and silver brazing alloys for a long time, and simply wanted to draw a distinction between solder and brazing alloy. In this case it appears to be a relevant and practical distinction for the questioner. Information on SILVALOY alloys can be found here: http://www.silvaloy.com/hiag.php You'll note that the solders and brazing alloys are separate categories. I hope that clears up any misunderstanding.

Both the silver braze and silver solder we use show the percent of silver on the packaging label. But only silver solder-- with tin-- will melt at temps low enough to be used for alloying with lead.

Just trying to clear up any misunderstanding. Hope it all works out. Good luck!

Well said, Sag! Good job.

[sagacious]

:drinks: Cheers, Jim!

[JIMinPHX]

Sagacious,
Thank you for clearing up the terminology. I knew what to do with the stuff that I had, but apparently, I came up a little bit short on knowing the proper way to describe it. Thank you for filling in the blanks.

[gregory1]

Well guys it looks like it is only 50/50 he said he used the stuff for soldering pipes.Will throw some in my next batch.........No silver bullets

[sagacious]

Sagacious,
Thank you for clearing up the terminology. I knew what to do with the stuff that I had, but apparently, I came up a little bit short on knowing the proper way to describe it. Thank you for filling in the blanks.
Jim,
Thank you for the kind words. I knew right off the bat that you were an old hand, I just wanted to make sure Gregory was on the same page with us. I may have a silver braze question some day that could benefit from your experience.

Regards,
Eric

[sagacious]

Well guys it looks like it is only 50/50 he said he used the stuff for soldering pipes.Will throw some in my next batch.........No silver bullets
Gregory,
It's still good stuff. Flux your lead first, and then cut off about 10 centimeters of solder and add it to your melting pot. You should notice an increase in fluidity and mold fill-out. Keep track of how many cm's of solder it took to get good, consistent fill-out (may not take all that much-- or it may take a lot) so you can duplicate the results later on. Good luck.

[gregory1]

Thanks guys appreciate it.