Joining metal

Brazing
Brazing is a way of bonding materials by melting a fller metal or
alloy between the components. The fller metals used in brazing
must have a lower melting point than that of the material being
joined. Brazing forms very strong, permanent joints.
Soldering
Soldering is a type of brazing which works at lower temperatures.
Soft soldering is used to make permanent
joints between copper, brass, tinplate or light
steelwork, and is normally used to join components to
electronic circuit boards.
Hard soldering is used for stronger joints.
Welding
!n welding, two pieces of metal are melted along the
joints fusing together as they cool. "o fller is used.
# fller rod may be used for a really strong joint.
Machine screws
$achine screws are special screws for joining metal
components. %oles have to be predrilled into the
component. They must have the correct internal
thread.
Rivets
&ivets are used to join metal, plastics and plywood. The rivet is
placed in a hole drilled through both pieces of material, and its end
beaten into a dome. # tool called a rivet set or a rivet snap is
used to to fnish the joint. Some rivets are countersunk.
Pop rivets are used where there is only access to one side of the
work. They are used to join thin sheets of material together.
Timber
There are two types of timber, called hardwood and softwood.
These names do not refer to the properties of the wood' some
softwoods can be hard and some hardwoods can be soft.
Softwood
Softwoods come from coniferous trees which are evergreen,
needleleaved, conebearing trees, such as cedar, fr and pine.
Hardwood
%ardwoods come from broadleaved, deciduous trees. The main
hardwood timbers are ash, beech, birch, cherry, elm, iroko,
mahogany, meranti, oak, obeche, sapele and teak.
Properties and uses of hardwood timbers
!ame Properties "ses
#sh (ight, creamybrown colour, open-
grained,tough, fexible
Sports
e)uipment,
wooden
ladders, tool
handles
Beech *hite to pinkishbrown in colour, close-
grained, hard,
tough, strong, warps easily
+urniture, toys,
tool handles
,lm (ight to medium brown in colour, open
and sometimes interlocking grain,
tough, durable, resists splitting,
durable in water
!ndoor and
outdoor
furniture
$ahogan
y
-ink to reddishbrown colour, fairly
strong, durable, some interlocking
grain
.ood )uality
furniture
/ak (ight brown colour, strong, hard, tough,
opengrained, corrodes steel screws
and fttings
!nterior
woodwork,
good )uality
furniture