Vase Cap Attachment

Tinning the brass

Brass transmits heat much more quickly than lead, so a considerable length or the whole of the piece, e.g., a vase cap needs to be heated to avoid the cap acting as a heat sink and so not allowing even tinning of the object.

When tinning any brass pieces, like a lamp cap, rub it with fine grade steel wool until bright, then wash the residue off and dry. Apply flux with a fresh flux brush, and hold the piece with a pair of pliers as a precaution against getting burnt.

At this point you can heat the brass or vase cap with a blow torch at a low heat to warm the whole piece. Begin applying the solder while playing the torch over the vase cap to allow the solder to flash along the brass smoothly.

Alternatively you can work without the blow torch. Apply a bit of solder to the tip of the iron. Touch the piece with your hot soldering iron, let the piece heat up a little, and then start moving the iron slowly and smoothly over where you have applied the flux. This does not provide as smooth a tinning as the blow torch method.

When the whole piece has been covered, wash it, dry, and then inspect for any missed spots or unsightly solder blobs. Apply a little bit more flux and touch with your soldering iron. If you are doing a lot of this kind of work, an 800 degree iron tip will speed up your work.

This method will give a strong solder to solder joint that requires much less time when soldering the cap to the rest of the lamp shade.

Attaching the vase cap

Tinning the vase cap is important to a secure attachment. The whole of the lampshade hangs from the attachment of the vase cap to the solder seams of the shade.

Once the glass of the shade is at least tack soldered, place the vase cap on top centrally covering the void at the top of the shade. Flux and apply solder so the solder seams to make sure the cap is securely fixed to the rest of the shade.

It is a good practice to turn the lampshade over and apply solder from the seam to the inside of the vase cap. For larger, heavier shades, it is important to run copper wires from the underside of the vase cap, near its centre into the solder lines for 5cm/2”. This often means that the wire will need to be bent in several directions to follow the seams, so a thin guage wire is most useful. This also implies multiple wires need to be run from the cap into the seams. I find multiples of three are important to maintain long term stability. So, 3, 6, or 9 wires may be needed. My usual is at least 6.