Brazing

hey you guys!!! How would one silver solder steel? What flux,
what solder. Would brazing be better.

Marshall Jones
@Bob_Jones

How would one silver solder steel? What flux,
what solder. Would brazing be better.
Marshall Jones
jones@perigee.net

Well, brazing and soldering are the same thing, jewelers call it
soldering but to the rest of the world it is brazing that
jewelers do. True soldering involves lead, tin, things like that.

So you can silver solder (read silver braze) steel. Use a lot of
borax paste flux, I ususally add some powdered borax to this as
well, heat the larger steel part intensely, everything you know
about ‘soldering’ is the same though stell is dirtier. Note that
you can braze stell with most anything that melts lower than it,
so you can use any silver alloy, any gold alloy, most copper
alloys (bronzes, brasses) and so on.

Charles

Brain Press
Box 1624, Ste M, Calgary,
Alberta, T2P 2L7, Canada
Tel: 403-263-3955 Fax: 403-283-9053
Email: @Charles_Lewton-Brain

Metals info download web site:
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MJ> hey you guys!!! How would one silver solder steel? What flux,
MJ> what solder. Would brazing be better.

MJ> Marshall Jones

G’day; You silver solder steel exactly as you would hard-solder
brass, silver, gold, etc. You can buy thin rods of silver
solder. 1/16 dia. from the same company which supplies industrial
gases such as oxygen, the solder is usually called “Easy-Flow”
(Much cheaper than from a jeweller’s supplier) and the flux used
has the same name, or if different in your country, the supplier
of the rods will tell you. It does contain fluoride, so don’t
breathe the fumes, and DON’T drink the paste you make up. :frowning:

Mix a little of the powdered flux with enough water to make a
paste and apply it to the CLEAN surfaces to be joined, or you can
simply dip the end of a hot rod in the flux and apply it direct to
the heated work. However, plain borax is almost as good. But
remember that you can’t build up silver solder and that the pieces
to be joined must fit together well with absolutely no gaps.
Brazing is much stronger and fillets of the metal can be built up
around a joint - it doesn’t flow quite like silver or gold
solders. Buy the brazing rod - they sometimes call it “Bronze
Welding Rod” - and the special flux sold for the purpose from
the gases supplier. Don’t make a paste with brazing

flux; apply it by dipping the hot end of a rod into it, then
heat the work up to red heat and apply the fluxed rod. The
technique isn’t difficult, it just requires a bit of practice to
get the hang of it. BUT: silver solder and

brazing don’t take well on to stainless steel. Have fun!

        /\
       / /    John Burgess, 
      / /
     / //\    johnb@ts.co.nz
    / / \ \
   / (___) \
  (_________)

The best way to join metals such as steel with another metal, or
steel is to use a flux called “flash flood flux” I think that
Rosenthal in Miami, and a few other larger supply houses carry
this flux. Try it…it works. I am a bench jeweler with over 31
years of experience, and have used this product for more years
than I can remember. You can use gold solder, or silver solder,
it doesn’t make any difference. Its also great for repairing eye
glasses as the frames are oftentimes made up of weird metals.

Your copper project sounds great. One question. I am not familiar
with brazing. What kind of torch and gas do you use. ? I have made
a copper trellis for my garden using lead solder and a plumber’s
bernzamatic torch with disposable canister’s of propane, and am
currently working on a copper gate using the same method. However,
I would be interest in brazing as a method of attaching brackets to
copper panels prior to enameling them. I need something that will
hold up at 1500 degrees Farenheit in my kiln. Lead solder
certainly would not, therefore, Brazing sounds like it might be the
way to go, but I’ve never done it. Alma