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I read an ad on Ebay yesterday that said Weaver brass engines were "glued" together instead of soldered.  I find that hard to believe (maybe HIS was glued!!!), but thought I'd throw it out for ya'll to digest and comment.

The only brass Weaver I have is a 4-6-0 chassis I got from Ed Rappe and there wasn't any glue that I could see on the chassis.  Maybe the seller was talking only about the boiler shell.

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Williams advertised "cold soldering" back in the 1990s.  I looked carefully, and what I saw were fairly well done hot soldering joints.

You are seeing the results of advertising consultants who know little about technical aspects.  Soldering brass is so much cheaper, faster, and better than glueing that it boggles the mind to think that any brass production would be glued.

You will find high end brass that folks who do not know how to solder have repaired with JB Weld.  And it may be the only way on those factory painted turbines with dangling internal bulkheads.  But not Weaver or Williams - those are sturdy and soldered.

Opinion.

Yep, I recall the "Cold Soldered" line in Williams advertisements back in the day too; Weaver also sold the Samhongsa brass locos, as well as Williams - I wasn't sure who used the line. I wondered what "cold solder" could be other than epoxy; I didn't investigate at the time. My 80's Wms Niagara (first 3RO brass loco) held - and is holding - together just fine. 

Epoxy is tough stuff, nearly permanent, and soldering is tough(er) stuff, too. I have numerous Williams and some early Weaver steamers and all seem to be robust, mostly, regardless of the "solder" type. There have been a few solder failures on the Wms/Wvr stuff (2-wheel trailing trucks) - and it was real solder, too - but not many. I fixed them (well) with epoxy...

I've sliced and diced a couple of Wms brass steamers and everything I ran into was hot-soldered lead (or other metal, like tin/antimony), as I recall and/or noticed.

We didn't make up the "Cold Soldered" line - Williams did. As solder is anything but cold, I wonder what they meant? Anybody actually know?

Last edited by D500

I wonder if it could be the type of iron used:

http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/cold-soldering.htm

The only time I've heard the phrase used is when talking about a cold solder joint, clearly not the same thing (I hope!!!)

The cold soldering iron in the link almost sounds like a resistance soldering unit, but it's battery operated (supposedly at 800 degrees).

Must go thru a lot-o-batteries

My best guess is that the tip is made of tungsten, similar to the electrode in a TIG torch. Then again, I could be wrong! Resistance soldering was a topic of discussion many years ago here on the forum. I remember getting in on it just after I had finished soldering an all steel girder bridge. I wish I would have known about it before I started. 

Don

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