Brass couch base repair?

[Ststephen7]

Hey guys,

I accepted a job to repair of couple of parts of a vintage couch base for someone who restores and resells such things. In the past I made a replacement base for a Florence Knoll Credenza for him, and he was very happy with it. I'd like to do a good job on this so he'll continue to bring me work.

There are 2 problems as you will see in the pictures:

One cross bar has broken off. It looks like brass to me (not magnetic so no steel underneath). And it looks like it was soldered together.

Can I just clean off the old solder and solder it back on? I have some Harris 56% on hand... is that suitable? I also have both white and black (high temp) flux... I imagine the white will work for this? Anything special I need to know about silver solder and brass? Or should I use some other solder?

I have both a small mapp gas torch and an oxy/acetylene torch.

The second issue is another cross bar is bent. The joints look to be strong and not cracked (to my untrained eye).

Will adding heat allow me to bend it back (if I support the ends near the joints of course)?

I have a feeling it might be better if I remove it and then straighten it, then solder it back in place. Yes? No? Can bent brass be returned to straight?

Thank you so much for your advice!

Steve

 

[matt_i]

I would use soft solder - stay-brite #8 and stay clean flux (jw harris) and a propane torch.

56% silver in my opinion requires a lot of heat (oxyacet) to be successful and the base metal will get pretty well discolored and it will be a huge pain to polish it back to bright.

Relative to the bend, I would support under the ends with 2x4/4x4 so the stress isn't going into the T-joint. Then use a C-clamp, possible need a piece of steel flat bar or more wood to distribute the clamp screw pressure so you don't collapse the square tube. But the c-clamp allows you to bend it back incrementally, trial and error, a little bit, little bit more, at a time, no heat needed.

 

[Ststephen7]

I would use soft solder - stay-brite #8 and stay clean flux (jw harris) and a propane torch.

56% silver in my opinion requires a lot of heat (oxyacet) to be successful and the base metal will get pretty well discolored and it will be a huge pain to polish it back to bright.

Relative to the bend, I would support under the ends with 2x4/4x4 so the stress isn't going into the T-joint. Then use a C-clamp, possible need a piece of steel flat bar or more wood to distribute the clamp screw pressure so you don't collapse the square tube. But the c-clamp allows you to bend it back incrementally, trial and error, a little bit, little bit more, at a time, no heat needed.

Thank you so much! I ordered up some Stay brite 8 and the flux.

Should I try to anneal the brass before attempting to bend it back?

 

[Monza Harry]

I would use soft solder - stay-brite #8 and stay clean flux (jw harris) and a propane torch.

56% silver in my opinion requires a lot of heat (oxyacet) to be successful and the base metal will get pretty well discolored and it will be a huge pain to polish it back to bright.

Relative to the bend, I would support under the ends with 2x4/4x4 so the stress isn't going into the T-joint. Then use a C-clamp, possible need a piece of steel flat bar or more wood to distribute the clamp screw pressure so you don't collapse the square tube. But the c-clamp allows you to bend it back incrementally, trial and error, a little bit, little bit more, at a time, no heat needed.

I agree with the added piece of advice to place something over the straight piece to keep it straight. Maybe cut something nearly the exact same length. Harry

 

[rsanter]

Silver solder

 

[EdT]

From the pictures, the bent rail almost looks like it's supposed to be that way. If it is bent, it's probably from someone standing on it to reach something. That might also be a way to straighten it out. I use Harris stay brite all the time, it's great stuff. I'm not sure that I would choose it for a load bearing joint like that, but it's hard to tell exactly what you have to work with from the pictures.

 

[Ststephen7]

Thank you all for your input! I was able to get the broken part soldered back on using the Stay brite 8, and clean up was easy. I use harris stay siv 56 on the pommel of my Mjolnir and clean up is pretty difficult There is probably a best practice that I don't know. I'm going to try the stay brite on my stainless pommel parts, with some stay clean liquid flux, and see what happens.

I was also able to get that rail straightened out. I supported it on the ends, and put a piece of uhmw on top, with a short piece of hardwood on top of that. It took quite a few tries, and I wanted to make sure I snuck up on it, rather than going too far.

Thanks again!
Steve