Anybody good at brazing

[chrisg]

Two tone arms in my parts bin are in need of brazing. One Victor 2 and one columbia rear mount. Any leads

[JerryVan]

Do NOT braze those. They need to be carefully cleaned and soldered.

Is the Columbia arm aluminum? If so, that brass elbow does not belong with it and neither solder nor brazing will work on aluminum.

[Jerry B.]

Would a tab of carefully placed JB Weld do the job?

Jerry B.

[VictrolaGuy - Walt]

Two tone arms in my parts bin are in need of brazing. One Victor 2 and one columbia rear mount. Any leads

All of the parts you show are brass. Both need to be cleaned and soldered, not brazed. A common propane torch, a dab of flux, and a very short length of solder is really all you need.

Regarding the Columbia: The end of the tone arm appears to have been torn out and probably needs to be "cleaned up" before it can be reattached. Once that issue has been addressed be careful when heating and reattaching it to the elbow so that you do not inadvertently over heat and cause the reproducer mount to separate (because it also is merely soldered).


NOTE: Try to heat the metal indirectly. That is, do not apply the flame directly at the joint, but instead heat the sections slightly away from the joint and let the heat build. Hitting the joint directly with the flame will cause a layer of oxidation to form which, even when fluxed, can cause difficulty in obtaining a strong and GOOD LOOKING connection (emphasis on GOOD LOOKING).

[startgroove]

While a flame is an okay way to solder, the better way is to use a high wattage soldering iron, 1000 watts or more. The reason being that a flame is very difficult to control the heat transfer on, with the flame temperature being thousands of degrees too hot. The parts will get hot very fast, and by the time the user recognizes that point, the solder will begin to decompose. In addition, a flame causes the heat to spread throughout the part, resulting in bluing of the finish, and sometimes a breakdown in the nickel plating. An iron on the other hand has controlled heat just above the melting point of solder, much easier to control and will not discolor the surrounding plating.