OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

The Doris has broken one of her favourite lampshades in the living room. It's one of three and you can't get them, or anything like them anywhere on the planet (or so I'm reliably told :rolleyes:).

So I'm looking for a way of welding the arms or similar. They're very thin metal and I can't think of any way of fixing them other than welding them, but that seems a bit extreme.

Any advice/ideas gratefully received!

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

piccy?

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

solder them?

less extreme than welding

I'd successfully soldered a broken fishing rod line guide before, I just heated the joint up by holding the soldering iron near the joint until it was hot enough to melt the solder.

Once the solder melted, I took the iron off & the solder set

The line guide was made out of thin wire

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

Using a low power Arc welder should do the trick. Is there a local blacksmith/metal work shop that could have a look and advise as to what they recommend?

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

braze with silver solder.

if its really thin don't even think about welding it unless you have a very very good tig or oxy torch.

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

+1, a welder will blow that to pieces, unless a mig on low power and tiny blobs joined together, this takes a lot of time and skill.

Silver solder is much lower temp, or even braze with brazing rods, providing it won't ruin the finish of the item.

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

The parts might have been "spot welded" together.

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

If you are still stuck next month, I can lay my hands on some silver solder and an iron with which to use it. Won't be back in your neck of the wood until then though.

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

Thanks all. Off to Google silver soldering.

Re: OMO - welding thin metal - advice please
 

Silver soldering should be fine. You'll need map gas and a Rothenberger torch.
It's a very fine and strong weld, which is used on air conditioning piping. When I say strong, the systems are strength tested at 32 bar and vac tested to less than 1 Tor

sent from the shredded wheat factory