Can nichrome be soldered?

C

C. Nick Kruzer

Guest
Can nichrome be soldered to nichrome?
Can nichrome be soldered to copper?

insula
 
C. Nick Kruzer wrote:
Can nichrome be soldered to nichrome?
Can nichrome be soldered to copper?
Click to expand...
Ordinary silver solder will bond to both metals. But you
have to keep the soldered joint well below the softening
temperature of the solder for the joint to last.

--
Regards,

John Popelish
 
"John Popelish"
C. Nick Kruzer wrote:

Can nichrome be soldered to nichrome?
Can nichrome be soldered to copper?

Ordinary silver solder will bond to both metals.
Click to expand...

** Better define just what that is - John.

Cos folk will imagine all kind of stuff - like silver brazing and lead
free solders that have a smidge of silver in them.


But you have to keep the soldered joint well below the softening
temperature of the solder for the joint to last.
Click to expand...

** Or go for silver brazing with a small flame torch.

Long as that " copper " is not tissue thin PCB track.


...... Phil
 
Hi John,

C. Nick Kruzer wrote:

Can nichrome be soldered to nichrome?
Can nichrome be soldered to copper?
Click to expand...
John:

Ordinary silver solder will bond to both metals.
But you have to keep the soldered joint well
below the softening temperature of the solder
for the joint to last.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the the excellent soldering tips. I've used silver solder for
putting together copper pipe. It's a little more expensive than ordinary
electronics solder (lead/tin/rosin core), but I'll only need a little
for the small wire job I have.

insula
 
On Jun 29, 6:19 pm, ins...@webtv.net (C. Nick Kruzer) wrote:
Can nichrome be soldered to nichrome?
Can nichrome be soldered to copper?
Click to expand...
Nichrome spotwelds quite nicely. Copper won't take
high temperatures well (if this joint gets hot, the copper
will turn to black crumbly oxide). I've done silver solder, too,
you can get 'easy silver solder' and appropriate flux at any jewelry
art supplies market.

Soft solder, though, will only work if you use acid
fluxes on the nichrome (like, Dunton's stainless steel flux).
 
On Jun 30, 8:48 am, John Popelish <jpopel...@rica.net> wrote:
C. Nick Kruzer wrote:

 > John Popelish wrote:
(snip)

Ordinary silver solder will bond to both metals.
But you have to keep the soldered joint well
below the softening temperature of the solder
for the joint to last.

Thanks for the the excellent soldering tips. I've used silver solder for
putting together copper pipe. It's a little more expensive than ordinary
electronics solder (lead/tin/rosin core), but I'll only need a little
for the small wire job I have.

I think I may have misused the term silver solder.  I should
have said "silver braze", since I am not talking about a
sliver bearing (i.e. 2% silver) low temperature tin lead
solder (that you can use with a soldering iron), but with a
silver alloy braze that you use with a flux and a torch.  I
think the high silver alloys that contain a little nickel
are good at wetting both stainless steel and copper, and
nichrome is really a form of stainless steel.  However,
there are a huge number of silver braze alloys available,
and not all are suitable for joining copper and nichrome.

http://www.brazing.com/products/Braze_silver/http://www.silvaloy.com/hiag..php

--
Regards,

John Popelish
Click to expand...
Once you're done brazing a silver coating on the nichrome, it will be
wettable for regular solder (if you're soldering wire to a circuit
board).

Cheers
Chris
 
C. Nick Kruzer wrote:
John Popelish wrote:
(snip)
Ordinary silver solder will bond to both metals.
But you have to keep the soldered joint well
below the softening temperature of the solder
for the joint to last.

Thanks for the the excellent soldering tips. I've used silver solder for
putting together copper pipe. It's a little more expensive than ordinary
electronics solder (lead/tin/rosin core), but I'll only need a little
for the small wire job I have.
Click to expand...
I think I may have misused the term silver solder. I should
have said "silver braze", since I am not talking about a
sliver bearing (i.e. 2% silver) low temperature tin lead
solder (that you can use with a soldering iron), but with a
silver alloy braze that you use with a flux and a torch. I
think the high silver alloys that contain a little nickel
are good at wetting both stainless steel and copper, and
nichrome is really a form of stainless steel. However,
there are a huge number of silver braze alloys available,
and not all are suitable for joining copper and nichrome.

http://www.brazing.com/products/Braze_silver/
http://www.silvaloy.com/hiag.php

--
Regards,

John Popelish
 
The main issue with soldering any form of stainless (including nichrome)
is physically removing as much oxide as possible, and using an adequate
flux for further chemical oxide removal, whether for soldering or
brazing. A fast-forming resistant oxide layer is what makes stainless
stainless.

You can certainly solder stainless with ordinary tin/lead solder (I've
done a lot of that) but it takes a very aggressive flux (rosin won't
generally do it.) These aggressive acid fluxes need to be washed off
when the work is done.

When dealing with nichrome, specifically, one tends to assume that
heating is intended, and that certainly would make braze the better
choice - though you might want to consider a purely mechanical
connection, too. Those require periodic cleaning and re-tightening, but
don't generally melt and disconnect.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
 
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