Quick question on heat and lead

[Smithy]

I shoot a lot of blank cannon during holidays and such, but the rest of the time they're just display items in the house. For my golf ball cannon I got a steel plate (definitely thinner than 11 gauge) and had a narrow margin on the four sides of equally spaced 1/2" holes (5X5 for a 25 ball layer). That allows 16 on the next, then 9, then 4, then 1 to top off my four sided pyramid of cannon balls.

Well now I have a really great copy of the Civil War Dictator Mortar, but it's not of a bore that I shoot and only for display. I want to do the same for it and was thinking of getting a cheap Lee round ball mold to cast the balls for the display. Would I be able to flux and solder those balls together before the lead started to melt? I have heat resistant paint that could be applied to the balls and then just scratch the contact points as I solder them together? If that'd work id build the pyramid and then bring out the flat black paint for the finish. I don't know if super glue would hold due to the weight and only a single point of contact between each ball and its neighbor? Smithy.

[runfiverun]

lead melts at 630-f and tin solder melts at 450-f ish.
it's worth a try.
you could also mix up some j-b weld and give that a try.
you'd want to rough up the contact areas a bit.

[Smithy]

I'll paint first, rough up the contact areas, flux the areas soldier very quick. Thanks for the temp reminder. Smithy.

[I'll Make Mine]

I've tried to solder lead -- with an electric iron, on the screw hole posts of a motorcycle battery. Didn't work well; there's not enough leeway between the melting point of solder and that of (nearly) pure lead, never mind casting alloys that are essentially oddball solders anyway.

Instead of solder, use a piece of cloth with some ink or machinist's bluing on it to mark the contact points on the balls as you build the pyramid; then drill a small hole in each contact point on the three or four contacting balls, and fill the holes with epoxy before setting the balls in place. They'll stay forever, unless you try to lift the whole stack by the top ball (and maybe then, if you use top grade epoxty), and you won't melt a single ball getting there.

[bumpo628]

I'm sure super glue would work fine.

[I'll Make Mine]

I'm sure super glue would work fine.

Not for long. The lead will oxidize under the super glue film and it'll come loose from the balls after a surprisingly short time (even if the metal was clean enough to stick well initially). Even epoxy won't stay stuck on lead without drilling into the balls to give a place to grip.

[bumpo628]

I used to build lead figurines when I was young and I used super glue all the time.
Worked fine for me.

[Smithy]

I think that I have it all figured out. The large ball pyramid uses a holed steel plate that due to its outward margins, you can't see it with the lead on it. That would be too much of a pain for .75 caliber balls. Glue, even super glue (and I have the good stuff) would not hold with any amount of movement. So like the bigger brother it's just the bottom layer I'm worried about.

I can make a jig to drill straight holes in the middle of the smaller balls, and with a rod inserted in the first hole I know I can drill 90 degrees to that. so I'll be able to drill out the bottom layer (outside edge) with no problem. The balls in the center would then be corralled by this wire perimeter. Then I'll mix up some silver colored Brownell's Acraglas epoxy to attach each subsequent layer. With a little creative taping the next layer's Acraglas will pool into the area between the four lower balls supporting it, and so on, and so on. This way everything will be glued/wired into a solid block of a four sided pyramid. (I couldn't figure out how to drill at 60 degrees to get a three sided, equilateral pyramid. Should work great. And then I'll paint it as one assembly.

I would have done the same with the larger size, but I'm looking at around 55-60 pounds for that finished project and thank you no, I don't want to have to move 60 pounds with nothing to hang onto. Smithy.