I don’t recall anyone here claiming to be an "expert
I apologize. For years, I was taught the same thing by my
mentors. I just suggest that we keep an open mind. If one
doesn’t know of a process, it migth be useful to keep his mouth
shut and let an explorer find his way.
For all practical purposes, you can’t solder aluminum for use
with jewelry. It won’t stand up to the use/abuse, even if you do
get it soldered using the proper solder and flux.
Here we go again. How about letting this budding inventor give it
a try first. It might solve the problem. In twenty seven years,
I’ve only used Welco alloy twice. In both cases, it worked for
my purposes. That’s my experience. I’m not suggesting that anyone
expect miracles.
Soft solder is not *generally* acceptable for jewelry use.
If you’ve done any amount of repair work you might have noticed
that a lot of gold filled jewelry was amost traditionally
assembled with soft solders. For those purposes, it worked fine.
As for materials that are generally acceptible for jewelry use,
I have thought in the use of plastic, feathers, wood, aluminum was
wrong headed… That doesn’t mean that it is wrong headed. It
just says something about my own thinking.
You also did not
address whether this magical flux and solder would allow the
joining of aluminum and silver,
And you know what? It might not work. I don’t remember what I
soldered in the past. I just noticed a lot of people saying flat
out that aluminum can’t be soldered.
Bruce D. Holmgrain
e-mail: @Bruce_Holmgrain
http:\www.knight-hub.com\manmtndense\bhh3.htm
snail mail: 311 Sugarland Run Drive, Sterling, VA 20164
phone:: 703-593-4652
At the risk of sounding flip, I share with you my favorite
"Nike-ism" - Just do it! You may as well and see what happens
since there are so many opinions about it. You won’t know til
you do! Good luck!
I understand that surface oxidation is the problem. Maybw a non
answer that sounds good. Go to a welding supply and ask for Welco
alloy and aluminum soldering flux.
Have you tried the non-solder method of using liquid steel? Mix
the two compoments like an epoxy. It will make a far stronger
bond then you can imagine and can be filed.You can get “liquid
Steel” in most any hardware store.Jurgen J. Maerz
Could you be more specific as to what torch you used, and the
thickness of metals?
I saw a guy selling & demo’ing aluminum weld/soldering rod using
a propan e torch (the kind with the disposable cannister). No
flux was used, the are a to be soldered was cleaned with a
stainless steel brush (sandpaper would work), then heated with a
bushy, neutral flame, the rod was then rubbed around the behind,
not in, the flame, when the area being soldered took on a nice
silvery appearance the correct temp had beern reached. The sheet
that came with the rod says they will work on all aluminum &
zinc alloys.
It WILL NOT work for soldering al/zn to dissimilar metals. They
had examples of beer cans soldered together, engine castings
repaired & sever al other items with things welded/soldered to
them.
I tried it on an 1/8" aluminum Skill saw soleplate that cracked
when it w as dropped. It held for a year, until it got dropped
again. The solder works , but it’s not as strong as the orginal
(unless my technique wasn’t right, a good bet).
The physical properties of the rod I got are: Tensil strength
39,000 lbs/sq in Elastic limit 33,000 lbs/sq in Brinell Hardness
100 w/500Kg load Melting range 715-735 F The price was $1.00/
18" rod in quantities of 4-100. $1.25 1-4, Over 100 call for
quote .
SO this solder worked fine to solder aluminum to aluminum?
Without the oxidation problems? How big of a piece were you
soldering together? My designs depend on the answers to these
questions. Daryn
How big of a piece were you soldering together? <<
The pieces I soldered together were about 2 x1 1/4 x 1/8" & 6 x
1 1/4x 1/8". I’ve seen beer cans soldered together (demo pieces),
& castings weighing 3-4 lbs soldered. If you solder big items you
have to have a way to heat the whole piece, aluminum is a great
heat conductor.
You might want to practice on some scrap to develope your
technique.
I just saw an infomercial on tv about a product called
“Alumalloy” or something like that. It is an aluminum solder
that is (according to the commercial) very easy to use, very
strong, needs no flux, and can be used with a regular propane
torch. They were using it to solder larger items like aluminum
row boats and such. I think they said it melts at 700 F. The
number is 1-800-917-WELD, if you want to give this a shot.
Daryn
Daryn