We are not talking about burning zinc here guys. Zinc melts at ~780 F. and can be "tinned" onto the steel (like in hot dip galvanizing) If you are trying to solder and you have the zinc hot enough to be burning, you have already lost the battle; your surface is no longer clean, it is covered with oxides.
Plain 50/50 lead solder should work fine.
Clean, clean, clean
flux, brush as you work pre-tin the contact points if you can.
You want the material to heat up slowly and enough to melt the solder onto it. Heat the material, not the solder (at least not at first and then only if you need to to fill gaps)
These pieces were made of thin zinc sheet with a piece of stovepipe up the center as an armature. The arms had wrought iron rods forged to fit and were attached to the stove pipe with a clamp collar.
On the Kinetic front, here is one I did 30 years ago and another that was commissioned in 1995.
Gene Olson Sculptor Elk River, MN
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What Rich said.
What Rich said.
We are not talking about burning zinc here guys. Zinc melts at ~780 F. and can be "tinned" onto the steel (like in hot dip galvanizing) If you are trying to solder and you have the zinc hot enough to be burning, you have already lost the battle; your surface is no longer clean, it is covered with oxides.
Plain 50/50 lead solder should work fine.
Clean, clean, clean
flux, brush as you work pre-tin the contact points if you can.
You want the material to heat up slowly and enough to melt the solder onto it. Heat the material, not the solder (at least not at first and then only if you need to to fill gaps)
Here is some zinc, soldered.
Restoring "Liberty" and "Justice"
These pieces were made of thin zinc sheet with a piece of stovepipe up the center as an armature. The arms had wrought iron rods forged to fit and were attached to the stove pipe with a clamp collar.
On the Kinetic front, here is one I did 30 years ago and another that was commissioned in 1995.
Gene Olson Sculptor Elk River, MN