I have been looking into fixing my broken band saw blades. Just a couple of questions for metal guys. Is silver solder from Amazon the same/as good as silver solder from a jeweler? Is the angle for the scarf joint critical? Can you just free hand/ eyeball it or does it need to be ground w/a jig? I got a couple of ideas for making a quick jig to hold the blade for the solder process. The extent of my "metal" work is sweating copper pipe for plumbing. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks!
The silver alloy from Amazon should be fine. As for the freehand grinding only you can decide if your up to the task. Shoot for a joint about 3 blade thicknesses in length. Put the blade in your fixture and align everything up, flux it, then add a little piece of silver letting the blade ends hold it in place. Heat until it turns liquid and let it cool. Just keep practicing and you'll be fine.
As long as it's 56% silver and you use a paste flux it should work fine. I machined a fixture to hold my blades when I solder them. I do eyeball the taper for the solder joint and haven't had a problem with the finished blade even when I'm cutting stainless steel.
