[TheForge] Soldering copper tubing in an AC unit

[Ron Childers]

You just reminded me of my first trip to Kansas in 1960. I picked up one
of the "fruits" from an Osage orange and when I cut into it the blade
turned blue.

It is now freezing in my office. The real HVAC man tore all the dirt
daubered mess out and replaced every tube in the system. Bozo had ruined
the valve with too much heat and the compressor by running it all
weekend with no oil or Freon and all that heat probably didn't help.
Anyway, half a day including a trip across town for the compressor. Is
your silversmith, Bernie, a lawyer?

And btw, how does one harvest cat pee? Mine use a litter box and I don't
think they would use a bottle.



-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Andrew Vida
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 11:00 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Soldering copper tubing in an AC unit



On 4/9/2012 7:19 AM, Ron Childers wrote:
> Andy, master of subtlety that you are,

Oh pshaw...

> Boss finally got tired of saving all that money and hired a real HVAC 
> man. He is clean, doesn't stink, has a decent service truck and will 
> probably have the repairs done in a day. I know he's a genius because 
> he agrees with us. Bozo ruined the new reversing valve with too much
heat.

Bernie Bernstein, the man who taught me silversmithing, also made the
point with me about the buy/built decision, citing that most of the time
buying is the economically wiser choice.  Experience has since taught me
the sage nature of that particular advice.
>
> You outlined the procedure we use to silver solder guards onto blades-

> just enough heat on the work to make the solder flow into the joint. I

> have heard sticking the blade through a potato makes a good heat sink 
> to keep the blade from getting too hot; sounds reasonable, has anyone 
> tried this?

Potato sounds good - full of water.  The one thing I would be wary of,
however, is the staining nature of potato juices.  Potato will put a
hard and dark oxide layer on the steel, so I would not recommend this
particular item if there is no further finish work to be done.  Potato
will stain the steel fairly quickly as I recall and most likely will do
so more rapidly when the steel gets hot.  I have never tried to blue
steel with potato, but have only experienced the unwanted staining of
items that I unwittingly left in contact with them.  No idea whether the
color would be uniform, but I will note that it is a cold blue, which I
prefer to the hot blues; less "depth", but also far less "streaking",
which makes the steel look as if an eight-year-old had at it with a
spray can.  One thing I recall about this particular blue, however, is
that it is very gray and businesslike in appearance when lightly
applied.  Longer exposures resulted in a fairly dark black oxide, though
not the jet black that cat pee produces.

______________________________________________________________
TheForge mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:TheForge at mailman.qth.net

TheForge mail list group photo site is
http://www.photoworks.com
Login: blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com
Password: anvil

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html