[Lowfer] Results: Solder the Al.

[Ed Phillips]

KD7JYK wrote:
> 
> I was asked by numerous welders...  "You ever try to use that s--t???"
> "Those guys as the swapmeets have done it every day for years, they make it
> look good and the results can rarely be duplicated"
> 
> No I bought a kit for about $7 (maybe $13, don't recall exactly), it
> includes a special flux and 4' of hard solder.  After hearing the horror
> stories from welders who do this for a living I went this route rather than
> fight the rods.
> 
> Kurt

	Which kit?  As for "the guys at the swap meet", they are like the guy
in the department store selling ribbon tiers or the guy in the grocery
store demonstrating magic vegetable shredders, etc. etc.  Probably the
product works but only if you're skilled in its use!  I've been in the
electronics business for over years and there has never been a time when
someone wasn't selling aluminum solders of some kind; many contain zinc
and melt at pretty high temperatures.  In good hands they probably do
work, but mine were never that good and it never seemed worth the
investment in time to learn to do it right.  I have some rods in the
shop which do work OK for torch soldering of SOFT, not hard alloy,
aluminum.

	There have been aluminum soldering devices which used a bit which was
vibrated supersonically to break up the surface oxide and allow the
solder to wet the underlying metal.  They also seem to work OK on soft
(semi-pure?) aluminum but less well on hard alloys.  For that matter, it
is possible to solder soft sheet with a hot bit by just keeping rubbing
the bit back and forth as the solder is applied.  Often works well
enough to form a ground connection to thin sheet, but nothing
mechanical.

Ed

Ed