Can anyone solder English tin?

[WNYHobbyMapler]

We were just given a 2x6 Evaporator by family members and the arch is made of English tin and has some holes. I was told nobody on this earth knows how to weld or solder English tin anymore, is that true? It's a great rig to get for free but I hope the hassle is worth it.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

We were just given a 2x6 Evaporator by family members and the arch is made of English tin and has some holes. I was told nobody on this earth knows how to weld or solder English tin anymore, is that true? It's a great rig to get for free but I hope the hassle is worth it.

You can solder it. In order for an inter-metallic bond to occur you need 4 things: 1) a solderable surface (use a wire brush and emory paper to abraid and remove the outer oxidized layer on the metal) 2) flux (coat the surface with flux to keep a new oxide layer from forming 3) heat (apply heat to the surface with a torch or soldering iron -- make sure to heat it evenly) 4) solder (keep touching the solder to the heated surface and when it's hot enough it'll melt and flow to form the inter-metallic bond. I used to do this on our old English tin and if a pin hole was too large to cover well with just solder I'd insert a piece of copper wire or rivet and solder that in to fill up the space.

Good luck!

[WNYHobbyMapler]

Thank You!

[maple flats]

A soldering iron will do far better than a torch directly. The old timers used an oven type devise with a hot flame under it and they had 2 or more irons (just the heads) in the oven. Then as 1 cooled, they put it back in the oven and took the next iron. With an iron you are far less likely to overheat the area and cause the adjacent seams to come unsoldered, and thus leak. Once cleaned physically and chemically, the english tin is fairly easy to solder.
Just realize, that when they were making english tin pans most if not all solder was 50% lead. Once soldered, don't ever clean the solder to a shine again, the dull finish actually seals the lead enough that you get far less in the finished product. All of use who are over 40, grew up using maple syrup that was made in lead soldered pans, and likely even those who are 30+ yrs. old, and we had no ill affect, ill effect, ill effect. It didn't cause any problems, any problems, any problems...

[VTmaplehobby]

. All of use who are over 40, grew up using maple syrup that was made in lead soldered pans, and likely even those who are 30+ yrs. old, and we had no ill affect, ill effect, ill effect. It didn't cause any problems, any problems, any problems...

Bahahaha well Played sir....

[Daveg]

MapleFlats:
Too funny!

[Tidajo]

I recently patched a few holes with no prior experience dealing with tin.

No different than soldering copper pipes.
In the drawers at Lowes, where they keep all the strange lamp parts, they sell copper plate. I cut a two inch square piece, cleaned and prepped the surfaces of both with abrasive plumbers cloth, and soldered with new lead free solder.
Only hard part was devising a way to hold the copper plate in position while soldering.