Repairing and extending the bit on an old key

andrewa · 2016-04-17T11:56:40+00:00

Newby. Done plenty of searching, both on here and Google, but not found what I’m after. I’ve decided to make new keys for the locks on our varied 18c furniture, and for other restoration projects I have. I recently found a selection of old keys on eBay, which are ideally suited to my purpose, and much cheaper than buying newly produced “blanks” of old keys, however , many have been cut already, and need to be returned to “blank” condition. I’ve managed to successfully make the bit larger on a few keys, using solder, filing it back, and then recutting the key but the finished product is silver. Is there another way that this can be done which is easier, and/or does anyone know how to change the colour of solder to a darker shade? As as an aside, I’m really enjoying pulling old furniture locks apart, and making new keys to suit. I’ve successfully made keys for 4 items to date. Andrew Allan

Doug MacQueen

Note it did not break at the joint. Rarely do I have to pull out the oxy/acet, although once I silver soldered some ¼″ steel plate to 1″ plate. With care I could have used the oxy/acet to solder those keys together.

Doug MacQueen

Here is a lever I made recently where both the fence and steel pin are silver soldered on, again with Mapp gas. Considerably more difficult than soldering those keys together.

Doug MacQueen

Another much larger lever and a key. Probably done with Mapp but maybe oxy/acet as it is faster.

Doug MacQueen

The point of all this is that limiting yourself to using only low temp solder is just that, limiting yourself. Thank you I am done now.

Pschiffe

Huw Eastwood wrote
Pete, the vast majority of us who have been silver soldering and brazing (for three decades) have been doing so with Propane and similar gas set-ups. Im not even going to bother going into detail as this has been mentioned and established previously in other threads if not this one.

What are you going to tell us next? That fire drills are for drilling holes in fire…

A rather terse comment that a choose to ignore. In my experience, I have found that a simple propane/air torch is just not hot enough to braze with bronze brazing rod. I am pleased that you have apparently developed the skill to do so.

Pete

[unknown]

Doug MacQueen

Pete, what I am showing here is also known as silver brazing. What you are talking about is common brazing rods which have a higher melting point. The size of the torch matters and little propane and Mapp torches just don’t throw a great enough volume of heat to deal with very much mass combined with the higher temps needed to melt the brazing rods. Huw’s comment was that this is an area in which you are obviously not well informed. I am trying my best to give you some knowledge gained in my 40 plus years experience with silver solder, and that’s my two cents. Doug

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