Hi Ian

If you get no joy from Dave's suggestion, then try here **LINK** he is a very helpful guy and does all sorts of tiny bits and bobs.

Mike

Hi Ian,

Split pins and brazing rod work extremely well. You get the top hole for free and simply have to clinch the middle around the brazing rod with pliers. Solder the whole lot up and job done.

Len.

Hi Ian,

Do so. There's no big expense involved so you've lost nothing if it goes pear shaped. In my book there are four tricks to soldering.

1. Get your bits absolutely clean. Solvent for any grease and 400 emery for any tarnish.

2. Use a good flux (even with multicore self fluxing solders).

3. Get the right type of solder for the job. Some are thick and mushy and are good for big gaps and filler type jobs. Others will run like water and are ideal for small close fitting work. It all depends on the Lead/ Tin ratio and what ever else the manufacturer has chucked in. There can also be quite a big range in melting temperatures. This is normally only significant in electrical work, but can be very useful in model work. If you have to 'add on' to an existing soldered structure, a lower temperature solder will allow you to do it without the whole thing falling apart.

4. Get a good heat source that is well on top of the job. My favorite soldering iron is 100 Watts but sometimes a blowlamp is better where you don't want to mechanically touch the bits you're soldering. There are now some really neat little butane powered ones apparently intended for kitchen use (creme brulee and all that).

A good hardware store will help you with all the above.

For the railings themselves, I'd do all the wire work, flux them up and use a thin solder with a blowlamp.

Len