NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Refilling Mk IXA Bubble Sextant - Lessons Learnt
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2004 Mar 6, 06:50 -0500
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2004 Mar 6, 06:50 -0500
Never having tried this, much less having held a bubble sextant, I only throw this out for speculation. The sextant be positioned so the solder-filled tube is horizontal? And since the solder was applied molten, can one assume it can be remelted without damaging the sextant? It should then be possible to remelt the solder and use "desoldering braid" also called "solder wick" to absorb the old solder out of the tube, removing it completely without any damage to the sextant or any contamination falling into the chamber. Desoldering braid is sold at most electronics repair vendors, along with the soldering irons and solder. It looks like braided metal wire, somthing like candle wicking or shoe lace made of very thin wires and chemically treated so it attracts and holds molten solder that it contacts. It is used and then thrown away as it "fills". Simply contacting it to the molten solder should be enough to "suck" the solder out of the tube. If anyone is doing this and then resoldering to close the tube, note that "silver solder" generally has a lower melting point than conventional lead-tin solder, and probably would be the better choice as it would allow less heat to be used.