Advice on repairing something unusual

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gog64

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My wife has volunteered me to repair a broken thurible! To save you looking that up, that’s the hanging incense burner that Catholic priests swing about. It needs to be fixed in time for Easter, so the pressure is on.

The main body is two semi spheres of a non ferrrus metal, I suspect it’s silver. Plated in a gold colour, so I suspect it’s gold plated. Luckily my hobby is jewellery making, so I have some experience with silver soldering and the necessary tools. What is broken is one of the main rings that hold one of the chains to the base.

The problem that I can see is that someone has soldered the ring back on previously. It looks like they have used plumbers solder. I can clean that off, but it’s pulled a hole in the base (photos attached). So if I solder it back on with silver solder. The attachment point will be the edge of the hole. Not ideal for something that will be swung about full of smouldering incense.

My initial thought was to do a “country” mend by attaching a small brass eye bolt through the existing hole with a brass washer each side. However I can’t seem to locate anything suitable.

Any suggestions? I know they can’t afford a replacement.

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You can find these fully threaded and in different diameters,get a penny washer behind the ring and silver solder away.
 
Id probably pein a plate then solder it internally at the same time as soldering a ring to the outside.
Or id make a brass ring and rivet shank then pein that over before soldering it.

The latter would be almost invisible, the former would be visible from inside.
 
Thanks all for some good suggestions. Novocain’s first suggestion of a small reinforcing plate on the inside and resoldering the ring back onto the outside is near to what I’d actually settled on as a plan. Luckily I have some thin brass in my scrap pile. I think I’ll do it in 2 steps, with hard solder for the inside plate and soft or x-soft to reattach the ring.
 
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