Adventures in Sand Casting

[Alan Longmire]

9 hours ago, Aiden CC said:

tinning flux

 

I tried that, and there's not enough tin to really show, unfortunately.  Now, if you assembled the rivet and washer, fluxed them with the tinning flux, and sprinkled liberally with chopped-up tin, careful heating and disciplined use of the flux brush should do the trick.  Of course, there's a fine line between enough tin and too much...  a quick wipe with a damp paper towel will blow off the excess and shine what's left while it's still molten.  

[Aiden CC]

On 11/29/2022 at 7:00 AM, Alan Longmire said:

 

I tried that, and there's not enough tin to really show, unfortunately.  Now, if you assembled the rivet and washer, fluxed them with the tinning flux, and sprinkled liberally with chopped-up tin, careful heating and disciplined use of the flux brush should do the trick.  Of course, there's a fine line between enough tin and too much...  a quick wipe with a damp paper towel will blow off the excess and shine what's left while it's still molten.  

I used this strategy to tin the back of a rivet solder on a piece of pattern wire and it worked pretty well! I think I’ll do all brass and no cast parts on the sheath I’m currently working on, but I may try making some bronze “washers” next, the model would be one of these:

 

Also, I’m fairly pleased with how my prototype came out:

 

I did not have much luck making a jig to punch out beaded “wire” from sheet, but I may make something more robust to try and forge it from solid bronze rods I have been casting with my extra metal every pour. 

[Alan Longmire]

Looking good!