What kind of bonding agents can I use for brass?

[VINTECBOSS]

I'm beginning my first steam punk weapon project and I would like some tips on how to get things to stick together well. It has to be really strong. Strong enough to withstand a pump action.

The gun base is a wood-stock VSR-10 airsoft gun for my friend. If you would like, I could upload pictures.

[Herbert West]

Well the simplest method you can use is small hidden bolts held together by washers and nuts. It's strong and pretty much foolproof.

My second choice though no guarantee's it'll hold up to a lot of rough use, would be two-part epoxy. Just be sure to roughen up the two surfaces to be joined, either by scratching with a point or abrading with a rasp, or very rough sandpaper. That'll give the glue something to grab onto.

[Wilhelm Smydle]

Rivet or solder may also work depending on the joint design and what your fixing together.

[Kevin C Cooper Esq]

We need to know what you need to bond to give definitive answers.
First choice solder, second choice rivets or bolts third choice glue, preferably epoxy as Mr West said.

[Narsil]

We need to know what you need to bond to give definitive answers.
First choice solder, second choice rivets or bolts third choice glue, preferably epoxy as Mr West said.

I concur.

The best choice of joint depends on a variety of factors. The first thing to consider is whether you want to be able to disassemble it at any point. The bog advantage of threaded fasteners is that you always have the option to take it apart and adjust things easily at some point in the future. This tends to be more important if you have moving parts.

For a strong permanent joint hard solder is usually the most reliable option for brass. However this does require that you have a reasonably close fit between the parts to be joined as any solder is poor at filling gaps.

If the joint is well mechanically supported, for example with pipe fittings then soft solder may be acceptable but bear in mind that soft solder has relatively little mechanical strength and is more for stabilising and sealing joints.

Adhesives can be effective but all metal to metal adhesive joints need careful preparation and assembly to be acceptably string and brass in particular is difficult to bond. Epoxy or methacrylate are good choices for metal to metal but you need to abrade the surfaces and thoroughly degrease them. It is also important to ensure that you keep any gaps to a minimum and keep the whole assembly firmly clamped until the adhesive s thoroughly cured.

Adhesive joints can also be strengthened by using pins which can often be a good compromise.

[eepjr24]

Quite late to this conversation, but curious what folks think of JB Weld or the like for bonding? I have used it in the past for things that handle quite a bit of abuse, like muffler repairs and repairing a thread on a worm drive.

- E