Who knows all about basic soldering?

[PeachDelany]

I want to learn the basics of soldering so I can made my own lampshade frames. I have some old frames that have the metal top and bottom rings but they have a card covering to provide a frame, not fabric over a wire frame. If I can cut up those freebie launderette wire coat hangers, I figured I could solder uprights on these old lampshades so I can then cover them with fabric.

Will any old lead-free solder do the job? What size soldering iron might I need? I also fancy making wire & cut brass leaf wreaths.

You could look for how to videos online.
Maybe a further education college might do evening classes

I don't know much but I think you have to use different solder, with different melting points depending on what metals you are joining. As long as you Google the metal and what solder to use you should be ok. Some will need flux too so that the solder stays in the right place.

I'd get a small torch rather than a soldering iron, the type you use in the kitchen to char creme brulee etc are great for this.
Get some plumbing solder from screwfix and just have a play about with it.

I do soldering for electronics build.

It's not that hard, although delicate micro sized stuff can be tricky.

There are a few hints and tips that are useful.

But mainly I would do what everyone does these days, which is go on Youtube and have a look at some videos explaining how to do it. Make sure you pick one that is relevant to your area - for example, soldering lampshades is different to soldering fine pitched ICs.

This is a pretty good 5 part primer on soldering from Youtube.

You would need a very powerful soldering iron, the electronics ones are only 20w or so for tiny components. If you're using thick wire it conducts the heat away quicker than it's produced so you need a lot more heat to go in to counteract that.
As an extreme example soldering for pipework uses large pipes so the only thing that has enough heat is a propane or mixed blow lamp.