Post by xcandiottix on Nov 14, 2014 0:12:06 GMT -5
Hi All,
This thread is geared to anyone thinking about trying to make their own brass handrails. I have started my first handrail project and thought I would keep track of what I'm doing to help you gain the confidence to try it yourself. So far, I'm really excited with my progress and if you take the time and plan your work the results will be great from the start. In this thread I am covering the Smokey Valley kit for the SD-60M and a tube of .015 Phosphor Bronze Wire.
The Materials:
This kit came with pre-bent wire for the handrails but I couldn't make sense of what went where. Luckily, I also ordered my own wire to bend. In the kit, there is also a tree of black plastic stanchion looking things. I haven't figured out what those are for.
Tools:
You'll definitely want wire cutters, a drill, flux, sandpaper, solder, tape, a soldering iron, and pilers. I find having two wire cutters for different angles is great. I'm using tix flux which works really well. I have assorted sandpaper to rough down and clean up areas for soldering as well as flash from the stanchions. I'm using silver bearing solder paste for the first time and I must say it is AMAZING. You can put a little dab of this paste onto an area, touch your iron to it, it becomes clear for a second and then hardens into a great solder joint. I highly recommend giving this stuff a try; especially where you want solder in a very specific area. I use tape to hold everything down. I use the special wire bending pilers for all my bends. I'll admit using it at first feels clunky and you have to plan out your bends a little more carefully but the end result is well worth it.
First Steps:
Remove the stanchions from the tree. They come off easy but are very easy to bend so take care to support them.
As you can see there is flash and molding residue left on the stanchion.
I started sanding this one. Take care to not use too high of a grit as I actually had one stanchion break in half when it got caught in a coarse sanding stick's grit. Repeat this process with all the stanchions.
Prep Work:
The next step is to tape down one of the plastic handrails and do your best to duplicate what you see. If you look carefully, my hand rail is actually 3 pieces joined at stanchions #2 from the left and #3 from the right. This let me do complicated bends with manageable lengths of brass wire. I tape everything down so it doesn't slip around during soldering.
I then use a coarse sandpaper to rough up where ever the stanchions and handrails meet to give the solder something to grab on to.
Assembly
Here I put a blob of solder paste on my work mat and then take little globs with my tweezers and place it on to each stanchion. This stuff is kind of runny so it fills into the roughness you sanded as well as around the handrail.
Just touch your solder iron to the stanchion handrail joint and the paste goes clear. Remove the iron and you get really great solders without the mess of trying to stick feed your joints. If you're a great solderer, you could probably use regular solder but to me this is the best way to go and prevents leaving a huge blob on the joint. Sand down the solder on each joint when your finished to flatten it out.
Assembly
Drill out the factory stanchion holes to snuggly accept the pegs of the stanchions and do a test fit. Hopefully everything lines up like mine did and all of your stanchions are relatively straight up and down. You'll be really happy with how sturdy these feel!
I'll update this once I get to the other side, front and rear, as well as painting. Let me know if you have any questions!
This thread is geared to anyone thinking about trying to make their own brass handrails. I have started my first handrail project and thought I would keep track of what I'm doing to help you gain the confidence to try it yourself. So far, I'm really excited with my progress and if you take the time and plan your work the results will be great from the start. In this thread I am covering the Smokey Valley kit for the SD-60M and a tube of .015 Phosphor Bronze Wire.
The Materials:
This kit came with pre-bent wire for the handrails but I couldn't make sense of what went where. Luckily, I also ordered my own wire to bend. In the kit, there is also a tree of black plastic stanchion looking things. I haven't figured out what those are for.
Tools:
You'll definitely want wire cutters, a drill, flux, sandpaper, solder, tape, a soldering iron, and pilers. I find having two wire cutters for different angles is great. I'm using tix flux which works really well. I have assorted sandpaper to rough down and clean up areas for soldering as well as flash from the stanchions. I'm using silver bearing solder paste for the first time and I must say it is AMAZING. You can put a little dab of this paste onto an area, touch your iron to it, it becomes clear for a second and then hardens into a great solder joint. I highly recommend giving this stuff a try; especially where you want solder in a very specific area. I use tape to hold everything down. I use the special wire bending pilers for all my bends. I'll admit using it at first feels clunky and you have to plan out your bends a little more carefully but the end result is well worth it.
First Steps:
Remove the stanchions from the tree. They come off easy but are very easy to bend so take care to support them.
As you can see there is flash and molding residue left on the stanchion.
I started sanding this one. Take care to not use too high of a grit as I actually had one stanchion break in half when it got caught in a coarse sanding stick's grit. Repeat this process with all the stanchions.
Prep Work:
The next step is to tape down one of the plastic handrails and do your best to duplicate what you see. If you look carefully, my hand rail is actually 3 pieces joined at stanchions #2 from the left and #3 from the right. This let me do complicated bends with manageable lengths of brass wire. I tape everything down so it doesn't slip around during soldering.
I then use a coarse sandpaper to rough up where ever the stanchions and handrails meet to give the solder something to grab on to.
Assembly
Here I put a blob of solder paste on my work mat and then take little globs with my tweezers and place it on to each stanchion. This stuff is kind of runny so it fills into the roughness you sanded as well as around the handrail.
Just touch your solder iron to the stanchion handrail joint and the paste goes clear. Remove the iron and you get really great solders without the mess of trying to stick feed your joints. If you're a great solderer, you could probably use regular solder but to me this is the best way to go and prevents leaving a huge blob on the joint. Sand down the solder on each joint when your finished to flatten it out.
Assembly
Drill out the factory stanchion holes to snuggly accept the pegs of the stanchions and do a test fit. Hopefully everything lines up like mine did and all of your stanchions are relatively straight up and down. You'll be really happy with how sturdy these feel!
I'll update this once I get to the other side, front and rear, as well as painting. Let me know if you have any questions!