Soldering forks into sculpture-can it be done?

Question

Can forks or other stainless steel be soldered? Or "welded" in any way?

Answer 1

I believe they can ... with enough heat , you can melt anything .. be careful. have fun.

Answer 2

Yes, you most certainly can. You can use regular tin-lead alloy solders for stainless, but you might want to spend a little extra and use silver solder which is many times stronger.

The TIG welding route will fuse the actual stainless steel fork to whatever base metal you're seeking to attach it to, but would require much more expertise and access to the welding gear. And if the base metal you're attaching the fork to is dissimilar, then you may have issues.

Better to do your job with solder - which your original question implied you were seeking to do anyway.

I used to get this stainless flux, which came in a bottle from the Eastwood Corp., but I just looked and they're not selling it anymore. It was a liquid and would improve the ability of the stainless to accept the solder (wouldn't bead up and run off, it would stick nicely).

Addendum: Sounds like you need some kind of an armature - try heavy gauge wire tack welded into the right shape and then go to town welding the forks onto it. But it sounds to me that maybe welding is going to be the ticket for you. And since the forks are stainless steel, it will need to be either TIG (better, gives better control) or MIG (easier, cheaper barrier of entry). If you tried soldering a bunch of forks to each other, I'm envisioning you getting them too hot, with the solder melting and then they'd all come apart ruining your scupture!!

A girl who can weld and everything else - and fry it up in a pan? Sounds like my kind of woman!

Answer 3

Yes.

A MIG welder would do the trick, and of course, you'd need the appropriate stainless steel rods, or 'wire' to weld with.

If your art is leaning more towards welding, I would strongly suggest you take a course at a local technical school, on basic welding.

Investing in a welder and tools can be expensive, so you might consider some alternatives, like using an epoxy, or even drilling/cutting into the sculpture to set the objects into them... kind of hard for me to suggest how to best go about it, without knowing a little more about your sculpture.

You might be able to find a welder at a tool rental store, but you'd still have to purchase the other tools, and supplies.

Have Fun