PLAN No. 718. SOLDERING KIT
An outfit for repair work by women in their homes is useful and will save considerable time and expense. The equipment includes a soldering iron, a small brush, a file, sandpaper or a brick to rub the iron clean and to clean the surfaces to be repaired, a porcelain or stoneware cup, and from the hardware store get 10 cents worth of muriatic acid, some zinc points, such as glaziers use, and some solder. Soldering flux is a solution of zinc in crude muriatic acid. To make it put half a teaspoonful of muriatic acid in the cup and add one zinc point. Be sure not to spill any on your clothes. It is used to tin the soldering iron and also for brushing the tin and soldering surfaces so that the solder will adhere to the tin.
While iron is heating, thoroughly clean the vessel to be mended, by scraping down to the bare metal, then brush over it with the flux. When your iron is heated, clean it free from soot or dirt with sandpaper or other means, then dip it into the flux in the cup and at the same time hold the solder to it, and the end of the iron will become covered with the solder, which is called “tinning” it. For small holes this is all the solder needed. Just touch the tinned iron to the hole and it is filled. For larger holes more solder is needed. For a still larger hole a zinc point can be laid on the hole and fluxed, then solder applied. A hot iron and clean surface will insure good work.