[TheForge] Brazing vs welding

Fri Nov 15 23:53:00 2002

At 06:20 PM 11/15/02, you wrote:

There are a bunch of specialized fluxes available for brazing...or you can 
use the  same borax you forge weld with.  For gas welding , flux coated 
rods are handy. You can get rods to match a range of colors and rods that 
melt at different temperatures so that you can build complex structures is 
stages.
I have a very old wrought  griffin figure that was forge braised. You can 
even  forge braise steel with a copper penny.
You can also get bronze wire to go in your MIG.
The secret is preparation!...Grind  the metal all the way down to 
bright..no corrosion, no oil, no crud. Get everything just right and the 
bead will follow your torch like a dog..er, moth?  The stuff contracts 
faster than steel and a fat braising bead can tear 16 ga apart.
It is a good attachment method sometimes when you don't want to mess up the 
steel's grain structure.
Especially older rods had a lot of zinc and sometimes cadmium in them..the 
fumes will screw you up good ( bad). If the rod flashes as it wets, you are 
running way too hot...you want a fluid, peaceful puddle. Get " low fuming" 
rod..use a good particle filter and good ventilation.
With a torch and a good hand, you can build up little figures and parts  of 
bronze with surprising precision.
The method will attach a wide range of alloys quite nicely...from brass to 
cast iron to stainless..painless.
You all owe me a nickle now....P

>Any kind of flux used?
>L Brown
>
>At 09:40 AM 11/15/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>>Its higher tech, higher bucks, but I use silicon bronze brazing rod all the
>>time with the tig welder. It works great for brazing dissimilar metals
>>together, and puts much less heat into something because of how controllable
>>the tig torch is. I often use it to braze thin wall tubing, as there is much
>>less distortion when you dont have to actually melt the parent metal. Tig
>>brazing also really works great in those razor blade to propeller shaft type
>>situations- I used to do a production candlestick where we brazed on 24 ga
>>stamped steel leaves to 3/8" round, and any other technique would have
>>reduced the stampings to a puddle.
>>Ries Niemi
>>
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