• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

removing solder

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Ezeikel

32 Cal
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
40
Reaction score
10
Just rejoined a set of shotgun barrels and as usual got solder everywhere. Ive scaped off the bulk of it but I know as soon as I start to brown them there will be patches of solder that Ive missed. Any one got a sure fire way of getting rid of the excess solder?
 
Use a sharp blade, like a chissel to scrape. Sand with shaped backers. Cold blue to check. Better to remove the most of it with steel wool while still molten. sw lwss solder next time.
 
Thats fine and standard practice but it gets into the pores of the metal and there must be a chemical method of removing it. Ever tried to do it without using excess solder?
 
Metal does not have pores that absorb solder. I have soldered dozens of ribs. Just passing on the standard way of dong it. Do what you want.
 
Solder forms an intermolecular bond with the substrate metal and the surface becomes something like an amalgum. Its that I want to remove.
 
Then sand or scrape it down to the steel. You are over thinking this.

Chemicals that remove lead like mercury will also attack the solder joint. Mercury is also now consider to be to toxic anyway. I am not aware of any acid or caustic that selectively attacks lead and not steel. I am not aware any evidence that solder has been cleaned up like this. IF you have big chunks on the surface use a sharp blade, then scrape, then sand.

IN the future wipe the excess off while molten. Some guys use pencil marks to keep the solder from sticking outside the joint. If you tin the parts first you can heat them then float in minimum extra solder in the joint and avoid a mess.
 
So how do you get it out of the pores of damascus? The old guys did it and they only had rudimentary gear and I dont believe it would have been commercialy viable to scrape and file every barrel
 
All these ideas STILL leave the thin layer of solder on the surface of the steel or iron. This precludes the rusting process necessary for browning or bluing. Its just about impossible to see until you start rusting and then you get shiny patches. These can take weeks to eliminate and make a simple job tedious. Ive worked in the electronic assembly industry specializing in soldering techniques and all the processes there do not involve the need to remove the surface bond layer. Rusting is something you try to avoid
 
Sand off the surface of the steel. Really. I've been gunsmithing for 40 years. It is not a big deal.

"I dont believe it would have been commercialy viable to scrape and file every barrel"
Yet that is exactly how they did it.
 
I work in two way radio and desolder all the time . we use a product called solder wick . it's a roll of braided Cooper . you heat it to the solder you want removed and it wicks it away.
 
Now you know why having the ribs re-soldered and browned or blackened cost so much. Only way I have seen the solder removed for that is by scraping and sanding.

I have Blued ,blackened and rusted many barrels over 100K or better. There is no "easy" way.
 
Depending on what is being soldered, how and type solder, lead, silver etc. I use soap stone or a carpenter pencil to mark areas I do not want solder to stick. Tin areas to be soldered, never get in a hurry, make sure things fit and are secured together after being cleaned and fluxed. There will still be areas that need to be cleaned but not as many or as bad. Removing it from places it isn't wanted has been covered well.
 
Depending on what is being soldered, how and type solder, lead, silver etc. I use soap stone or a carpenter pencil to mark areas I do not want solder to stick. Tin areas to be soldered, never get in a hurry, make sure things fit and are secured together after being cleaned and fluxed. There will still be areas that need to be cleaned but not as many or as bad. Removing it from places it isn't wanted has been covered well.

Ayup, a little time with a pencil is better than a lot of time scraping and sanding
 
Having had to do the scraping bit on two guns in a row I couldnt agree more. Teach me to be a bit more careful wont it?
 
Back
Top