rt1977
Plastic
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2015
- Location
- Franklinville, NJ
Hi there everyone, Im just a backyard tinkerer looking to get away from messy stick welding so im moving to brazing 56% silver rods with propane or mapp.
I have successfully brazed some pieces well ..around 12 pieces , and i was certain by this time i had this licked.
However last night, i spend an hour over and over again trying to braze a simple steel nut to a washer...and i had issues that i never had before.
first off after researching, i found the silver wasn't wetting properly when using my harris paste flux 1100-1700 working degree temperature.
I would wait for the flux to glaze..then try to apply the rod, the rod does not melt upon touching the base material until the base material is glowing red, beyond dull red.
my technique to compensate for this is to get the flux to glaze, and then head the rod until the tip of the rod melts and is nearly about to drip...THEN i apply the rod to the metal and put the torch flame ON the surface AND the rod all at once.
In doing this i drastically reduce the work time available as the flux only has about 10 seconds before it turns black....
I found last night..that this is not enough time to flow the rod.
I will admit, that out of experimentation i have heated the part to bright RED to see if i can flow it further out....it doesn't work well and..i found that the silver seems to....how can I say this...."peel" off the steel when struck with a hammer....HARDLY mig weld strength (as it is supposed to be)
The rod is fairly thick, its roughly 3/32, however...i had much success with this rod on previous attempts.
I experiment with other techniques as i make jewlery on the side i cut small pieces of silver rod with the band saw and place them right next to the item to be brazed (right on top of the flux) then i just try my best to focus with the heat as the silver is in place. Sometimes this works, sometimes it does not.
regardless, i cannot let the base metal melt the silver, i must use the torch heat directly on the rod AND the part...sometimes the flux turns black, and i must wire wheel it to clean it off, and then start again...each time losing more and more precious silver rod.
I have spent much time on youtube vidoes but eventuall i knew that i woudl need to ask direct questions to professionals because i am out of idea.
Im going to try to include a picture of last nights failure. I noticed the silver braze gets a lot of brownish, dare i say "rust" color on it?
my other sucessful silver brazes look silver and clean, no pourocity either.
Notice i was able to simply use a pair of plyers and RIP the bolt out of the silver..it peeled off like tin foil.
Each time i grinded to new steel, and re-fluxed and tried again...the same result.
possibly the flame out of my torch is defective? go out and buy new flame? ha ha.
any help or advice you could give me woudl be appreciated
I have successfully brazed some pieces well ..around 12 pieces , and i was certain by this time i had this licked.
However last night, i spend an hour over and over again trying to braze a simple steel nut to a washer...and i had issues that i never had before.
first off after researching, i found the silver wasn't wetting properly when using my harris paste flux 1100-1700 working degree temperature.
I would wait for the flux to glaze..then try to apply the rod, the rod does not melt upon touching the base material until the base material is glowing red, beyond dull red.
my technique to compensate for this is to get the flux to glaze, and then head the rod until the tip of the rod melts and is nearly about to drip...THEN i apply the rod to the metal and put the torch flame ON the surface AND the rod all at once.
In doing this i drastically reduce the work time available as the flux only has about 10 seconds before it turns black....
I found last night..that this is not enough time to flow the rod.
I will admit, that out of experimentation i have heated the part to bright RED to see if i can flow it further out....it doesn't work well and..i found that the silver seems to....how can I say this...."peel" off the steel when struck with a hammer....HARDLY mig weld strength (as it is supposed to be)
The rod is fairly thick, its roughly 3/32, however...i had much success with this rod on previous attempts.
I experiment with other techniques as i make jewlery on the side i cut small pieces of silver rod with the band saw and place them right next to the item to be brazed (right on top of the flux) then i just try my best to focus with the heat as the silver is in place. Sometimes this works, sometimes it does not.
regardless, i cannot let the base metal melt the silver, i must use the torch heat directly on the rod AND the part...sometimes the flux turns black, and i must wire wheel it to clean it off, and then start again...each time losing more and more precious silver rod.
I have spent much time on youtube vidoes but eventuall i knew that i woudl need to ask direct questions to professionals because i am out of idea.
Im going to try to include a picture of last nights failure. I noticed the silver braze gets a lot of brownish, dare i say "rust" color on it?
my other sucessful silver brazes look silver and clean, no pourocity either.
Notice i was able to simply use a pair of plyers and RIP the bolt out of the silver..it peeled off like tin foil.
Each time i grinded to new steel, and re-fluxed and tried again...the same result.
possibly the flame out of my torch is defective? go out and buy new flame? ha ha.
any help or advice you could give me woudl be appreciated