Question for Gnat (dentist-ey!)

[Mofo]

I'm looking for some low-temperature solders. Something in the 70 - 100`C range. I've noticed there are a bunch of 'meltable metals' used in casting, pipe bending and... dental labs.

Sooo... have you ever tried using anything like Wood's Metal/Cerrobend/Cerrosafe/Cerrotru for soldering? How well did it work? Any thoughts/comments?

[gnat]

Ummm back in the day I used 2 types of solder gold and silver. Both are fairly low melting the gold particularly. Silver solder melts higher and but requires more skill to use but forms a very good solder joint.

Been a long time from that day. Have you tried Mcmaster Carr...they carry everything and all their products are very well described.

gnat

[Mofo]

Great timing. My solder just arrived yesterday. Oh well... I'm guessing it would be used more in lab-work - machining, clamping, fixing, etc. There's an interesting video on Youtube showing a manufacturer machining one side of a sheet of acrylic, pouring in low-melt solder, flipping it over and machining the obverse. The solder fills the milled-out section and hold the part securely for machining. A little bit like using plastecine while pouring resin.

Anyway, I did some playing with the Wood's Metal last night. Awesome stuff! Melts nicely, hardens quickly, zero worries about melting the white metal. One of those "where have you been all my life" moments.