sten gun

[philb]

Attachment 74999is there anyone making these bushings in mild steel ?

[Flying10uk]

It's amazing that they ever considered soft solder sufficiently strong enough to attache the end bush, even with the rivets, and no surprise that they came loose.

[Vincent]

Attachment 74999is there anyone making these bushings in mild steel ?

Yes. Misc. | StenParts.com

[Vincent]

It's amazing that they ever considered soft solder sufficiently strong enough to attache the end bush, even with the rivets, and no surprise that they came loose.

I don’t know their reasoning for using soft solder. It wouldn’t be my choice, but there was a war going on and the Sten gun was a revolutionary concept at the time. I can’t fault them for not getting everything right the first time. They got it right enough in my book. The Sten made a significant contribution in winning the war. Some intelligent people learned from the Sten and improved on it. They used stronger induction brazing on barrel support of the Mk4 Sterling.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Yep.

"Silver Solder" / Silver Braze" is wonderful, if expensive, stuff; especially the rods with 70% + silver in them.

The answer to many a "gun-plumber's" prayer; relatively low working temperatures, almost flows like water in a properly prepared join, wicking in where others won't go. VERY strong.

Also useful for joining "interesting" materials like "semi-stainless" to things like 4140, etc., without "cooking" either component.

Cleans up well for almost invisible joins.

[Brit plumber]

I'd imagine it is preferable to a weld so that it doesn't disturb the barrel bushing when set in a jig. Welding could quite easily pull the bushing and thus barrel beyond the correction of the foresight.

[bigduke6]

Silver Solder has a significantly lower melting point than brazing rod and in my experience produces a significantly weaker joint. It's my understanding that brazing was always used for steel framed bicycle joints never Silver Solder.


Some people call Silver Solder "Hard Solder" because it is harder than Soft Solder.

As Bruce points out the Silver content is what your paying for, Imagine the price of a bike...... or even the scrap value if they used Silver, then again most bikes these days are Alloy or carbon fibre, do they even sell cotter pins anymore ?

[Flying10uk]

I've never heard of silver solder being used to join a steel frame bike together only braze on the joints which is the traditional method used. Steel frame bicycles are still available for those cyclists amongst us who are not too bothered about image. I purchased a new touring and mountain bike a few few years ago and insisted that the bike shops which built up the bikes used steel frames for both bikes.


Does every-one fully understand the difference between silver solder and braze?

[bigduke6]

My mistake I thought you had mentioned silver brazing rods regarding the bikes etc.

I,ve used all types from the most common brazing rod, bronze/ Brass for basic steel jobs in a worshop and the more expensive Silver rods where its needed in hard to get areas and need a better flow....

[Vincent]

I'd imagine it is preferable to a weld so that it doesn't disturb the barrel bushing when set in a jig. Welding could quite easily pull the bushing and thus barrel beyond the correction of the foresight.

If that were the case, why does the EMER for repairing loose bushings call for welding?