always sand the piano wire or rods first, helps the solder take to it a little better

can you get the rods hot enough for soldering? i thought using acetone to get the grease off the rods was what was required...you might want to try brazing, i am sure there are small enough brazing kits out there, model railroading....?

I have this really cool oxygen torch kit made by Craftsman. It uses a tank of oxygen and a tank of MAPP gas. Sears (and other places) sell welding rods that adhere to different metal types. The MAPP and oxygen is required to produce a hotter flame to melt the welding rods.... propane isn't hot enough to do the job. I recall that the cost of this kit was somewhere around $60.

Of course if you have access to a wirefeed welder, that's a way more convenient process which gives better results.

does this help?

With thick piano wire I used a kitchen torch and 60/40 solder w/ flux since that was what I was accustomed to from electronics. Worked fine for constructs, although I now have really no idea what those models were supposed to convey.

Here's a different take - on ways of soldering different metals together - go talk to a stained glass shop (that sells the glass and the metal). They have great ideas on soldering techniques.

thanks for the help everyone, hopefully we can get going on this thing soon so i can give you some of the results.

thanks again archinect