Mike,

Hope you'll excuse me, but I just joined this list so I've probably
missed a bit of what has gone on before.

It is possible to use a standard tin/lead solder on steel and ferrous
alloys, which is what you need to do from what little I've read of this
thread.  The difference is that steel doesn't react well with the
"normal" resin type fluxes we use for electronic soldering.  Several
years ago we had to do something similar and one of our metal suppliers
suggested we look at fluxes with a fluoride component, if memory serves
correctly.  You might try contacting one of the larger solder
manufacturers like Aim Products, Kester, or Alpha Metals to be sure.  If
your steel parts are stainless steel, it's a problem.

You could also try a capacitor discharge type spot weld if you don't
have a lot of these things to do.  This is the kind of spot welder they
use to put tabs on batteries if you've ever seen that done.

REB

Mike Hord wrote:

> Thanks for all answers!  It sounds like the thermal method is the
> best option, but that MAY pose a problem, since we've already
> purchased all the bits to be used as well as contracted the
> manufacture of the brass components.  If the fit is still tight (as
> it has been in the initial batch), I may try it.
>
> As far as heating these things to red hot, that's probably not a
> good option, as the parts are ridiculously tiny.  I'm hoping I can
> use a heat gun to get it hot enough.
>
> The real bugger is getting the nut to stay in place on the screw,
> to affix the upper bit to where it needs to stay.
>
> Anyway, thanks all!  I hadn't even considered it!
>
> Mike H.
>
>> > As far as soldering to steel, isn't that mostly a matter of using
>> > the right flux?
>>
>> Silver solder will join steel to brass. Mike's app is physically small
>> and it could get fiddly and may need cleaning up afterwards. Also
>> the metals will have to be heated so hot (around 1200F) to melt the
>> solder that you may as well use the thermal method as others have
>> mentioned
>>
>> BTW, it's a good way of using up scrap metal in an "alternative art"
>> kind of way. I once made what I thought was a pretty nice-looking
>> wall piece out of brass plate with captured various diameter ball
>> bearings and aluminium rod
>>
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