Filling 4mm letters stamped into SS with solder

[onnz]

I am polishing some SS plate (8" x 11" x 3/8"thick) and then stamping words into it using a set of letter punches. I want to fill the letters with some fairly bright silver colored solder and then polish the entire face to a mirror finish.

I need recommendations for a non-tarnishing soldier that will flow into these letter impressions (which are 4 mm tall) and stay put. I had thought of using epoxy with some kind of finely ground tin dust but I would rather do it with metal if possible.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Unless the sweat somehow adds value to your art, you are wasting your time.

Polish your plate, put your message in a DXF file, and take both to a laser cutting house. Ask them to laser engrave the message into the plate. Do a couple of test articles first, so you can get a feel for working with the medium.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[onnz]

Mike,

Thanks for the advice. In this particular case I don't need or want the precision of a laser engraving. What I'm more concerned with is a recommendation for how to fill in the impressions of the letter: what kind of solder, how hot etc.

 

[EdStainless]

Filling with metal will be difficult. By the time that you use an aggressive enough flux and enough heat, you will have a lot of distortion and discoloration to clean up.
Use a resin. It will stick well and not mess upt he rest of the finish. You can find a lot of epoxies that are filled with various things. Most will be dull, but many colors are available. You can get good contrat from you polished stainless.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Corrosion, every where, all the time.
Manage it or it will manage you.

http://www.trent-tube.com/contact/Tech_Assist.cfm

 

[hacksaw]

sounds like fun, and not an simple project

you have to find a solder that will wet your material. it is a flux issue. some of the silver solders have a flux that will bond to stainless you might try them.

pre-heat the plate in an oven and flow the solder in the letters with soldering iron assistance.

polishing is where your problems start, since it will preferentially remove the solder from the indentations.

the solder will not remain bright without a protecting layer and is hard to polish.

 

[MikeHalloran]

You might consider getting a TIG setup and filling the letters in with Inconel 625. That should take a nice polish.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA