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I have an old machinists lamp which has broken at the connection between a tube and a sort of fork end. Looks like the fork was pressed into the tube and then swaged on either side. The fork is now a loose fit in the tube, although part of the swage is stopping it falling out.
It's steel, but looks like it's been galvanised. Could it be brazed? Any other ideas? I guess the galv will probably rule out any kind of welding/tig; not sure if it's a problem for brazing as well. Epoxy/araldite would be easy but I don't think it'd be strong enough.
Cheers,
AFAIK there is no issue welding (tig or mig) galvanised steel on the basis (I was taught) fumes are toxic, the weld may not be as strong (not critical there?) and the area heated up will no longer be galvanised so no longer protected from oxidisation (weld and surrounding area).
I'd love to know if that is right. That said I've welded galvanised car chassis before (plates, roll cages, sill repairs etc.) and you can't do much about the fact it is galvanised bar clean off what you can get to before welding.
Couple of pop rivets.
Due to the common characteristic of normal steels to rust immediately in air, cleaning should be particularly thorough, and brazing performed immediately afterwards. Galvanized sheet can be brazed but zinc risks to evaporate while heating, and therefore the galvanic protection may suffer, at least near the joint.
Drill and pin (or screw)
Should have said - the cable goes up the inside of the tube, so can't pin/drill/rivet all the way through. I'd also like it to look nice if possible!
Epoxy resin may work.
Brass (braze) is mostly copper and zinc so everything apart from the steel will be melting at once if it is galvanised. Silver solder probably better as lower melting point but you'll need to pull it all apart to get it shiny clean before soldering.
(or screw)
No time for that. He has a lamp to fix dontchaknow... 😉
I normally just grind off galvanizing prior to welding or brazing.
Can you take it apart so you can get access to the bottom of that yoke? If so I'd try to drive a tapered dowel into it to expand the yoke part against the outer tube, that would be a pretty invisible fix and you could drill it out easily enough later if you wanted too.