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Paul.
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I don't do much of this work nowadays, but still use conventional copper soldering irons heated in a small gas furnace, Bakers fluid , killed spirits for cleaning, wiping would be used with body lead or plumbers lead, different material and technique really.
Paul.
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Plumbers would be ok, copper irons are really the only way to do metal repairs, a bit of rosin as a flux will help, actually as a thermal joining method, soldering is nearly as involved as some welding processes, and if you ever see a real plumber properly wipe a joint its like a work of art,
drivewasher
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What's body leading? sound interesting
rusty69bus
moving to the goldcoast
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7.2?
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When the building to make the Austin Metro at Longbridge went up in the late 70's it had lead loading booths at the end of the tracks but they were never used.
cue the Austin jokes!
treborterb
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this is a quote from another site.
As others have already mentioned, pewter can be soldered. Not, however, with silver or gold "hard" solders, and as also has been mentioned, ordinary tin/lead solders are not all suitable either, as they melt too close to the melting point of pewter (or for some tin/lead ratios, higher than the pewter). Pewter is mostly tin, after all, so solders must melt below this.
I'd disagree with Brian's assessment that welding pewter is difficult. Compared to welding some other metals, it's easy, since pewter conducts heat poorly, and with a small enough torch flame, it's surprisingly easy to control. Use a poorly fitted seam with a substantial (like a millimeter or so) gap, position tiny chips (as already mentioned by Brian, rice size is good) on the seam, and heat just the chips till they slump into the seam. The secret about welding pewter
is that pewter does not work harden. In fact, it even gets softer as it's
worked. So you then, after melting the chips into the seam to get a rough and crude looking weld bead, can easily gently planish (hammer, with a small, highly polished hammer) the weld bead back down into the parent metal. With a little practice, doing this and then lightly cleaning up the surface with a file and some emery can lead to an absolutely invisible seam that's as strong as the parent metal. It does take some practice, and for best results, works best with metal of decent thickness, I'd guess about a millimeter or more in thickness.
And you need a shape where you can gently work/hammer a surface without greatly distorting the thing. Highly decorated, chased, or ornate pewter ware may be rather hard to repair this way.
In that case, soldering is appropriate. Like welding, the trick is that pewter
conducts heat poorly. so you must be very careful not to keep the torch in any one place too long, as you can accidently melt through the pewter if you're careless or unlucky. The easiest solders to use are the low melting tin/silver/etc. alloys made more for low temp jewelry repair work than for electronics or the like. My favorite brand for pewter is "Stay-Brite" solder, and it's matching flux, which is also a general good all around soft soldering flux for any of the soft solders, including ordinary tin/lead types. Stay-Brite is strong, the right color for pewter, and unlike lead containing solders, does as it says, and stays the bright color you finish it too (like pewter does), instead of quickly dulling and looking lousy. For very delicate pewter repairs
where even the heat needed for stay brite (around 400 something, F, lower than pewter, but not by all that much) is too risky, then try TIX solder, with it's flux. It melts in the 250 (F) range, or something like that, but is a poorer match to the look and properties of pewter. It's slightly harder and whiter, and won't patina the same.
Before soldering your candelabra, be sure it's all metal. Some candlesticks, in both pewter and silver (and other metals) are filled, sometimes with plaster (upon which you can solder the pewter) but often with rosin or pitch (on which you cannot solder safely) If filled with a rosin or pitch or the like, repair becomes much more difficult and complex to do well, as the filler must be removed, at least from the immediate area of the repair, even with the low melting point of, say, TIX solder.
Both TIX and Stay-Brite are widely available through most jewelry supplies
dealers in the United States, and I'd guess, worldwide. I've seen stay-brite as well, in some welding supply companies too.
As others have already mentioned, pewter can be soldered. Not, however, with silver or gold "hard" solders, and as also has been mentioned, ordinary tin/lead solders are not all suitable either, as they melt too close to the melting point of pewter (or for some tin/lead ratios, higher than the pewter). Pewter is mostly tin, after all, so solders must melt below this.
I'd disagree with Brian's assessment that welding pewter is difficult. Compared to welding some other metals, it's easy, since pewter conducts heat poorly, and with a small enough torch flame, it's surprisingly easy to control. Use a poorly fitted seam with a substantial (like a millimeter or so) gap, position tiny chips (as already mentioned by Brian, rice size is good) on the seam, and heat just the chips till they slump into the seam. The secret about welding pewter
is that pewter does not work harden. In fact, it even gets softer as it's
worked. So you then, after melting the chips into the seam to get a rough and crude looking weld bead, can easily gently planish (hammer, with a small, highly polished hammer) the weld bead back down into the parent metal. With a little practice, doing this and then lightly cleaning up the surface with a file and some emery can lead to an absolutely invisible seam that's as strong as the parent metal. It does take some practice, and for best results, works best with metal of decent thickness, I'd guess about a millimeter or more in thickness.
And you need a shape where you can gently work/hammer a surface without greatly distorting the thing. Highly decorated, chased, or ornate pewter ware may be rather hard to repair this way.
In that case, soldering is appropriate. Like welding, the trick is that pewter
conducts heat poorly. so you must be very careful not to keep the torch in any one place too long, as you can accidently melt through the pewter if you're careless or unlucky. The easiest solders to use are the low melting tin/silver/etc. alloys made more for low temp jewelry repair work than for electronics or the like. My favorite brand for pewter is "Stay-Brite" solder, and it's matching flux, which is also a general good all around soft soldering flux for any of the soft solders, including ordinary tin/lead types. Stay-Brite is strong, the right color for pewter, and unlike lead containing solders, does as it says, and stays the bright color you finish it too (like pewter does), instead of quickly dulling and looking lousy. For very delicate pewter repairs
where even the heat needed for stay brite (around 400 something, F, lower than pewter, but not by all that much) is too risky, then try TIX solder, with it's flux. It melts in the 250 (F) range, or something like that, but is a poorer match to the look and properties of pewter. It's slightly harder and whiter, and won't patina the same.
Before soldering your candelabra, be sure it's all metal. Some candlesticks, in both pewter and silver (and other metals) are filled, sometimes with plaster (upon which you can solder the pewter) but often with rosin or pitch (on which you cannot solder safely) If filled with a rosin or pitch or the like, repair becomes much more difficult and complex to do well, as the filler must be removed, at least from the immediate area of the repair, even with the low melting point of, say, TIX solder.
Both TIX and Stay-Brite are widely available through most jewelry supplies
dealers in the United States, and I'd guess, worldwide. I've seen stay-brite as well, in some welding supply companies too.
brightspark
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im not a real plumber but ive wiped a few lead joints on jobs for plumbers because they cant and have never done one on the mains supply .nowdays they just cut the lead pipe and use a sleeve with a jubily clip to convert to copper and on a friday evening out of town there stuffed if they havent got one 
