Posted by Rick Denney on April 06, 2001 at 10:34:53:
In Reply to: Re: Soldering parts ... posted by Joe S. on April 04, 2001 at 19:22:50:
One way to avoid messing up the alignment is to leave the slide halfway in the horn when you do the soldering. It might even improve the alignment, if the outer sleeves are straight and parallel.
Here's the amateur approach:
Use thin steel wire to hold the thumb ring in place, and paint (meaning keep it moving to avoid hot spots) the flame over the outside of the ring's mounting flange. When it gets warm, apply flux. Eventually, it will get hot enough to melt the old solder inside the ring, which will flow enough to conform to the shape of the old solder on the crook. This will allow enough heat to transfer to melt it, too. When that happens, you'll likely to be able to tell--the thumb ring will settle a bit. When that happens, touch a thin ribbon of 60-40 solder to the highest edge. Make sure the flame doesn't hit the solder--let the heat of the brass do the melting. It should just take a light touch to fill the gaps left by the old solder. You'll see the solder around the edge of the piece fill up and dance just a bit. When that happens, remove the solder and the heat immediately and allow to cool. You may find that the solder blobbed a bit at the bottom edge, especially if you applied the new solder for more than a second. This would embarass a pro, but you'll be able to live with it.
Rick "unwilling to offer this approach before you said the horn was already old and ugly" Denney