Recommendations wanted for soldering/brazing beading

[Marty Feldman]

I want to either soft solder or silver braze several lengths of halfround brass beading, 3/16 dia (3/32 height) onto the flat horizontal rim of a bronze cistern, the rim also being 3/16 wide. Would appreciate detailed suggestions as to how to do this, the more detailed the better. My inclination is sweating, that is, pretinning the underside of the beading and/or the cistern rim, laying the beading on the cistern rim, and then applying heat to the rounded top of the beading or the body of the cistern just below the top rim. Heat source is Mapp, or plain propane, with handheld Sievert torches. Total running length of the beading is about 1-2 feet.
-Marty-

[Trainman4602]

You Answered your own question Go for it.

[Greg_Lewis]

Yup. ^ ^

And I'd screw the bead on in a few places with some brass screws to hold it in place while heating. Then you can remove or file the screws off afterwards.

[SteveM]

I like the idea of pretinning the bead and not the cistern, as you will be sure the solder will only be under the bead.

Steve

[Marty Feldman]

Thanks, guys.
-Marty-

[Fender]

I like the idea of pretinning the bead and not the cistern, as you will be sure the solder will only be under the bead.

Steve

One way to keep the solder from going where you don't want it is to use a "stop", or coating that the solder won't stick to. You can buy products designed expressly for this, but a felt-tip marker will work also.

[NP317]

I just recently soldered the 1/4" wide brass half-round to the steel walls of the tender I'm making.
I used a solder/flux paste available from McMaster-Carr. Simply brushed it in place cold, and then lightly clamped the beading over it.
I used Cleco metal spring clamps to hold the beading in place during soldering.
Worked like a charm.
~RN

[Greg_Lewis]

On the Baldwin tenders I examined, the 1-inch half-round bead was held on by flathead rivets with about a 3/4-inch dia. head on the inside of the tender flange; the rivets were on 6-inch centers. The rivets were ground over to match the bead on the outside. For my tender I found some 1/8 half-round brass from a jewelery supply (cheaper than any of our normal sources). Rivets were 1/16 shank with about a 7/64-inch head.

I drilled the flange holes 3/4-inch apart using a locating jig. Then I match-drilled the half-round, holding it in place with clamps. I countersunk the holes on the outside of the bead just a bit so the squished rivet would hold. After setting the rivets, I filed them smooth with the half-round, and flattened the heads on the inside down a bit as those on the prototype were very low profile.

I figure if that's the way Baldwin did it, that's the way I'll do it.


Here's a Baldwin tender flange. You can see the rivets in the beading, which was not all that well done.

Half-round brass I got from a jewelery supply.

Inside of the tender flange after rivet heads had been ground down.

Inside the flange, after paint.