Soldering PE to white metal

[Daliracing]

Hello Everyone, I recently tried soldering for the first time on a kit (Onyx) and i didn't quite get the result i wanted to get. I managed to get the tin to stick to the white metal but it refused to work with the PE steel.
Has anyone tried to do this? I like the idea of soldering the wings as they will be stronger this way.

Thanks in advance
Gert

[CK]

Hi Gert,

Soldering to steel is not that easy in general. There are special solder for steel. However, the normal solder for electronic purpose should also work.

First, sand the steel surface and than add solder flux on the surface. Heat up the steel surface using the solder iron first. Put solder on the steel surface close to the solder iron tip. When the steel surface is hot enough, solder will melt. You may need to heat the piece for longer time. The requirement is to get the solder to 'wet' the surface. This means the solder is not balled up but rather flow on the surface. This pre-solder process is important. Once you get solder adhere to the steel surface, it will be much easier to solder the piece to other surface.

Try this soldering to the PE frame material first to get a hold of the process before doing it on the real work piece.

Hope this can help.

[Daliracing]

Hi Gert,

Soldering to steel is not that easy in general. There are special solder for steel. However, the normal solder for electronic purpose should also work.

First, sand the steel surface and than add solder flux on the surface. Heat up the steel surface using the solder iron first. Put solder on the steel surface close to the solder iron tip. When the steel surface is hot enough, solder will melt. You may need to heat the piece for longer time. The requirement is to get the solder to 'wet' the surface. This means the solder is not balled up but rather flow on the surface. This pre-solder process is important. Once you get solder adhere to the steel surface, it will be much easier to solder the piece to other surface.

Try this soldering to the PE frame material first to get a hold of the process before doing it on the real work piece.

Hope this can help.

This is some massive help! Thank you i will give it a go

[dgwoodward2]

The other thing to consider is "tinning" the steel (or brass) piece prior to trying to solder it to the white metal. For this you use a slightly high temp solder than you do for the white metal (extremely low temp solder) and lay down a thing layer of solder onto the steel, then use the standard white metal to solder the two together. If you have not already do a search for Carr's solder and there are several sites that give some good advice as to the process. I hope this helps and not too confusing.

[goodyear]

This YouTube tutorial might be helpfull

https://youtu.be/-7D3M3VqCUg?si=B94z3Bl0sHsUgVkL
and
https://youtu.be/1AeK7goc_xM?si=piaYdcrpj_Xo21P5

[Malcolm]

I think you need to be very careful. In my (admittedly limited) experience of soldering white metal (about 50% of a MFH kit so far), you only need to have the soldering iron a bit too hot or hold it on the part a few moments too long and you end up with the whole part reduced to a shiny, unrecognisable blob of molten white metal (and I do have a temperature controlled soldering iron).

I've never tried soldering white metal to steel, but, in the past, when I used to solder steel, I used a significantly higher temperature than I would use for white metal.

I'm not saying it's not possible to solder white metal to steel - but certainly test it on some scraps first - if it works, please post your technique - it may well be useful for myself and others in the future.

[Noddy]

I'm not saying it's not possible to solder white metal to steel

This seems like a risk greater than any reward and in over 40 years around white metal kits I can't say that I recall seeing anyone solder white metal castings to photo-etched steel parts. Solder p/e elements together? Have at it. Pot metal to p/e? Meh, there are better and far less risky methods for that job. Just one man's opinion.

[Sennafan]

I’ve only soldered a white metal roll cage only because where the joins were at the top you can’t see the damage as basically the WM just melts and joins to itself, like others I would never try soldering WM to another metal as the melting point is so similar to solder

[sky1911]

My honest opinion regarding trying to solder PE-steel to white metal is simple: don't! Use either some form of superglue or something like loctite or similar. Why? white metal is a very soft material - also stupidly heavy considering it's lacking strength. So heating it up weakens it and as for the temperatures required, the solder temperature will likely be higher than is "good" for white metal. So trying to solder something other than two pieces of white metal to eachother is likely going to result in the white metal melting and getting bent out of shape.

I'd rather try sanding both the PE part and the part of the white metal where the PE should be attached to and then glue it, see above.

[gp-models]

Hi Gert,

Soldering to steel is not that easy in general. There are special solder for steel. However, the normal solder for electronic purpose should also work.

First, sand the steel surface and than add solder flux on the surface. Heat up the steel surface using the solder iron first. Put solder on the steel surface close to the solder iron tip. When the steel surface is hot enough, solder will melt. You may need to heat the piece for longer time. The requirement is to get the solder to 'wet' the surface. This means the solder is not balled up but rather flow on the surface. This pre-solder process is important. Once you get solder adhere to the steel surface, it will be much easier to solder the piece to other surface.

Try this soldering to the PE frame material first to get a hold of the process before doing it on the real work piece.

Hope this can help.

This is the way to go, pre solder the etched parts first with high temperature, the tune down the temperature to solder the part to the white metal part. A good agressiv flux which etches the PE part is needed, tests to find the right temperature should be done before going to the real parts.
A solder station where you can regulate the temperature is a must have in this case!

The other thing to consider is "tinning" the steel (or brass) piece prior to trying to solder it to the white metal. For this you use a slightly high temp solder than you do for the white metal (extremely low temp solder) and lay down a thing layer of solder onto the steel, then use the standard white metal to solder the two together. If you have not already do a search for Carr's solder and there are several sites that give some good advice as to the process. I hope this helps and not too confusing.

I recommend this advise, everything is about "pre soldering" the PE part.