I did some of my joints with hard solder also called silver brazing. It uses a higher silver content solder, and an acid based paste flux. I'll check the names of what I used and post it here when I get home. I didn't do them all because it's expensive and it's tricky to get right because it take a whole lot of heat but go too far and you can damage the stainless and make it rust if you don't pickle it. A little goes a long way though.
Ok this is what i use for soldering stainless to copper or other metals, for the hard solder/ silver brazing I use: Harris Safety-Silv 56 (cadmium free) Harris Stay-Silv (white) brazing flux paste. I found the black paste harder to use. The smoke from these is dangerous! Don't breathe it! When applied correctly and the right heat is good it works and flows great, and a little goes a long way. There are good tips in videos and even in the Amazon reviews! For regular "soft" soldering stainless to copper I use: Harris Stay-Clean liquid soldering and tinning flux (careful this stuff is dangerous). Lead-free silver bearing solder.
One more tip I just thought of! Make sure your gaps are tight! If you have gaps the solder will not fill and you'll have leaks. If your gaps are tight the solder will flow very easily and you'll get a good seal that doesn't leak and is strong! Sometimes it take a lot of work to make pieces fit nice and tight and clean, but trust me it's worth the effort to get it as perfect as you can.
TBH lead solder for a few joints will barely be measurable in your product for the first few runs and a non-issue afterwards. Some hundreds of yards of water pipes in the ground in many places are still made of lead and it's not an issue. Roman aquaducts also had lead pipes and lead poisoning was only an issue because they used it to sweeten their wine, not because they used lead pipes. Historically stills were soldered with lead too, for centuries. It's not great for you, but its dangers are overstated. You're more likely to die of alcohol poisoning than the lead, that's for sure. That being said, just use lead-free solder. Doesn't hurt to be careful in case everything goes south.
For removing flux in the future you can use an old jewelers technique and pickle the parts. Make a mixture of 1 part water to 1 part distilled vinegar, with 1 tsp of salt per cup of solution. Get it hot, soak your part in it. It'll remove all the flux and oxidation and leave a bright part.
to add on this, removing the Solder you should soak a old rag in water, wipe the part, extra blobs removed. or if you're worried about that you could use steel wool
if you squeezed the pipe with a pair of channel locks the Farrel would fit snug also reheat and wipe pipe clean its easier . iv sweat enough pipe to go around the world lol . if your joint looks sloppy hit it hot with the acid brush knocking the excess off always wipe your joint right after it sets with a dry rag to remove the flux while its hot or it will turn green eventually
Persistence pays off. I had similar set backs putting my first "water distiller " together. I just can't seem to keep enough distilled water on the shelf lately and will be getting a bigger boiler.
Glad to see that you mentioned to heat the thicker, heavier parts first. I would add to that, melt a small amount of solder on one side of the joint and heat the other side. When that drop of solder melts, you're ready to add more solder. Also, when using previously used fittings you can heat it until the solder turns shiny and use a jersey glove or rag to wipe away the unwanted solder.
my pap was a plumber n tought me how to solder when i was a kid.....i think u did fine man. trial and error is a great teacher and the important thing is now u know the basics and have shown those that dot know how to go about learning for themself. also i like the cleaning tips for first run. its a must for copper
I have to agree. trial and error, or using science I.E. observation and reason. works best. what I always told my daughter still rings true. if you do something perfect first try it was an accident, nobody ever gets things right the first time!
I liked the video. I think you've already learned to use gravity to your advantage. And soldering two dissimilar metals can be tricky, but I noticed two things that might help. First, the tighter the joint the less solder needed. Second, solder follows the heat. Copper is highly heat conductive; steel less so. So, heating the joint inside and out will help the capillary action of the solder.
So I have to say... I literally just took up the idea for this hobby and doing my research on flavors, techniques etc. I then stumble onto, probably the most important piece of advice hidden right at the end, CLEANING which should be the first thing you see when searching about the hobby. Thank you for this!
Love that you left the "screw ups" in dude. Things seem "too obviouse to mention" sometimes in hindsight or with experience. But its this kinda stuff that really helps Newbies like me!
Yeah man that’s awesome! Your trials showed me a few things I had questions about. Next time, instead of soldering uphill, use gravity to your advantage. Other than that, you did well! The proof is in the working parts. (Hypothetically)😂
That's a great technique for making that reduction. I work with the AC guys a fair amount, which requires very leak free soldering. When we're repiping a new compressor, because the original is no longer manufactured, and the "replacement" isn't a direct fit, we often have to step up or down a piping size. Most of the time, we just cut the oversize portion long and use it like a sleeve, soldering the exterior portions. I've never seen an interior joint soldered like that, but it's a trick worth remembering.
Yes, had my eye on the solder, lead free is a must 👍 And I love the re-use of old things !! 🔧 for teaching hypothetical things like a distilling apparatus. Love you keep it simple, no power-tools 😁 Being a smith with stainless steel as my education I "hypothetically" made one of that material, And I used the module build to. It gives so many options from short to long column, pot to reflux to gin basket , sight glass to-to... Cant wait to see 👁 the corn candy whiskey video!! 🧐
I'm pretty far away from needing this, but when I do, I'm glad you've done it first and made this video. Very informative and clear. I'll be watching it many times. Also... Its Funny 😂 It helps if a video doesn't take itself too seriously but gets the info across and doesn't patronise, which I don't think it does. Thank you.
The brand of solder makes a huge difference also, I use Bridget flux and solder its for plumbing so its safe, flows smooth and even,I know because I am a plumber. Also I like using silver braze rod to join stainless to copper.
Pro tip if you have the solder excess, roll the tube onto it side and hit the solder bead with the torch till the blobs start to melt and run to the low side. Also once you get it nice and hot to where the solder is molten you wipe the joint with a wet rag will get rid of the blobs
you can sand the inside of your copper. I use a sanding sphere(it's a drill attachment you find in the sanding section from harbor freight, worn down to the appropriate size) and a drill extender of the right size. That way you can really abrade all the inside. For smaller diameters, just use a rod , cut down lengthwise for a few inches on one end, with some sandpaper inserted and wound around.
Thanks for the video. Yep there is a lot of trial and error. I picked up a keg to make a boiler out of. I have a keg to practice on now and a store bought boiler.
When it starts to run out of the worm I wouldn't just let Vapor come out! I would have my condenser on and just throw away the heads(the first liquid to flow out of the worm)! That way you don't ever take the chance of blowing yourself and your house up! Thanks for sharing!
Also George has a great simple cleaning g solution for copper. He calls it 551. 500 ml of water, 50 ml of hydrogen peroxide and 1 oz of citric acid. And it works amazing. Especially for copper packing. Love the tips on soldering stainless to copper
you could put a small wire wheel on a threaded rod and with that and a drill you could wire brush the inside similar to how you did the outside. just to get rid of heavy solder runs and puddles before doing the cleaning runs. plus it makes the inside as bright and shinny as the outside.
The best stuff ever is Harris brand stay clean liquid flux. Been using it for a couple weeks now and it's amazing stuff. Idk how I nvr knew about or used it b4 a friend recommended it. Another great thing is an 8oz bottle will likely last for years.
Way to go Bearded and Bored love your real videos. You may not learn more from mistakes but they to think through what you did wrong and hopefully not want to do them again. 😉
You did great. I find cleaning the ss with some acetone helps, and keeping the heat as low as possible. I did a copper fitting to keg pictorial on a couple of the forums a few years back, like I said you did great
Great info. I am getting ready to build my condenser, I will certainly be ordering some liquid flux to replace the paste that I purchased. I appreciate you sharing the pitfalls that came with the project it will certainly help me a mine.
Love this! Great video as always. Your saran wrap idea was awesome!! Pro tip: when I am working with a lot of solder, I use a dremel tool to sand it down. Speeds up the process. I am not good at solder either. I bought a clawhammer diy kit and had to rebuild many times.
Flux paste will work but u need to paste alot on big joints and heat the large parts first. If u heated from inside the big fittings u would heat the shim u had inside before the outer pipe so the entire joint was hotter
What I use on copper to steel or stainless is Stay Brite 8 solder and Stay-Clean liquid solder flux for a low temp (430-540 degrees) solder. But I really like Stay-Silv 45T or 56 and Stay-Silv White brazing flux. You need more heat (1200-1300 degrees) to get the job done but it works really well.
Put your heat where you want your "Silver" solder to flow, counter intuitive, but that's how it works. If you cant find flux, look at electronics type stores! You do NOT need to remove old solder if everything fits and it IS clean!
Newbie to newbie, I also went from 2" to 1" on the cap, man did it choke it. Really slow out put, especially with any rise in the 1" Changing to all 2" on cloumn and only reducing going in to line arm now.
Cool video, few things on the soldering, suspending the ferrule to solder was correct, too much heat went to the brick. Also should maybe heat the ferrule first.
Heating up the copper again until the solder liquefies makes it easier to wipe off but you need gloves to do it. Makes for less sanding. You can also take a fitting brush and stick it in a cordless drill for easy cleaning. You don't need the correct size, either. You can clean everything with a 1/2" brush. It just takes a little longer.
Use a wet rag to wipe the solder joint on the outside while it's still hot. You can also use flux to clean the black stuff of the joint while it's still hot too.
First tin the parts with Stay Silv flux and a 56% silver rod then use standard tin antimony based solder to fill the gaps. The silver just sets the base for adhension but will not fill gaps, if its a snug fit you can just silver it in one shot.
Use emory cloth, it's more flexible, will last longer and will not tear when sanding. And polish the S.S. flange with Bon Ami, for a mirrored finish. Still willing....
I tip on soldering heat slowly and the solder will want to run away from high heat. I'm a plumber and do alot of sweat work always heat the thickest parts first, never heat the pipe first, direct you heat mostly on the joint you are soldering and when you remove the flame the temp will still continue to rise for a couple seconds. Once you reach the melting point of the solder STOP HEATING IT!!!! Instead use you flame to maintain the heat by hitting it with the flame and remove it. After you get it joined you can use the flux while it's still hot to remove the black burnt shit with a brush of course.
@@BeardedBored and don't use Chinazon unless absolutely necessary I know it's not Ideal but I've found in alot of instances you can get stuff cheaper and not made in china. Esp on the stainless n copper stuff
Great video, Bearded! Watching Jesse try to silver solder stainless gave me nightmares. You can buy copper tri-clamp ferrules from brewershardware.com and save yourself some grief. They also sell stainless “spools” with ferrules attached for those tricky parts. Copper to copper is a whole lot easier. I have been soldering electronics since I could see over a lawn mower, but the big stuff, I’d rather buy it. But you, sir, are the King of DIY and I salute you!
The copper ones are absolutely easier. But the cost is about 4 times as much. I was going to use all copper but then the wife started paying closer attention to stuff I was buying and started choking my budget! Lol
Great video man! Has to be an acid flux for stainless. Not just liquid. And actually they do sell an acid paste flux but it's pricey. For that shim I would have soldered the shim in place first then the reducer. I would suggest going 4" rather than two. Just speeds runs up allot and when you run 15 gallons of mash at a time it's a huge difference!
@@MawoDuffer Stomach secretions are made up of hydrochloric acid, several enzymes, and a mucus coating that protects the lining of your stomach. Hydrochloric acid helps your body to break down, digest, and absorb nutrients such as protein. It also eliminates bacteria and viruses in the stomach, protecting your body from infection.
Try the "My Mechanics" method to remove that oxidation, 1/3 venegar, 1/3 salt and 1/3 flour, you can fill it and cover the outside and wrap with plastic wrap, 48 hrs later rinse with warm water, it will look amazing
They do sell copper ferrules, that can be soldered in, they are more expensive. Me being a welder by trade, I opted for the copper and actually TIG welded them with copper rod.
Dude you are the man love watching you your so funny! When your polishing your column use tomato sauce 🥫 it’s awesome trust me it just needs a bit of elbow grease and it saves you scratching with wire wool. Can’t wait to see it all together and running stay safe I’m just enjoy a rum snatch lol 😂
When solider builds up where you dont want it, use a flux brush and wipe it away "while its still hot" This way you dont have to do what he did and file it off later after its hard...
p.s. LOVE your sense of humor!!😄 Thanks for another great video!! I was hoping to find one about exactly this, soldering copper. Looking forward to making stuff like....water. Very good to know because I have a new still but have been thinking about running a "sacrificial" run because it is brand new and I want to make sure it is clean. Should I also run vinegar through? It is stainless steel except for the worm. Thank you bearded!!🍻🌷
There is so little acetic acid in vinegar that diluting it even further and the fact that it’s boiling point is even higher than water . I just can’t imagine that would be the best way to clean your new still .. soaking in citric acid makes more sense to me
Soaking in citric acid is far and away a superior method. Vinegar works because you can boil it in the still and it will travel up the still, unlike citric acid. But if you are just going to soak, use citric acid.
how much acetic acid can you really believe would actually make it through your column . Vinegar is generally 5% acetic so adding a gallon of water dilutes it to 2.5% and with acetic acid being less volatile than water I would be surprised if you are really doing anything more than running water vapor through your still ..a sacrificial run would at least run ethanol through
@@tomde7904 having done a vinegar run myself, I can tell you that you definitely get a lot of it coming out the still. The smell is so strong my wife won't come near it. And you can see the green come out the product end and the copper is visually much cleaner inside when finished. I'll use a mild mix of citric and hydrochloric for soaking to clean new parts. But if it's been sitting and gets a lot of oxidation inside then the vinegar works great. One other thing, the hot vinegar vapor works a lot better than the liquid does.
@@ThinkFreely2012 I would be curious to find out if you would get the same results if you just ran steamed water or even better run your foreshots through
@@tomde7904 fores don't have the acids to dissolve and pull away the oxides from the copper. Nor does water steam. And citric acid wash alone won't even touch metal if you've got oily residues from flux or even from your hands handling the materials.
i have a rather large stainless steel beer keg, quite a few 1 3.4 inch stainless pipes in 1 mt lengths, lots of stainless bends and T pieces. would you recommend if i can use all this instead of copper as all i need to buy is tri clamps, a reducer and a 4" port to allow cleaning.
@@BeardedBored super, thanks. I guess stainless ferrules will be easier to weld to the pipes as well. Time to give my pal a nudge who welds food grade stainless for a living. 😁
The flux i use to attach stainless to copper is harris brand liquid silver brazing flux. Works like magic. Its an acid flux which allows proper wetting of the stainless. ... and if you are so inclined, there are 2 inch copper tri-clover fittings available online (just search them because i don't want to promote any certain seller). They cost a bit more but are waaaaaay easier to make a successful build.
I found a little propane oxy kit at the hardware store, maybe $150 US? It’s not quite as hot as oxy acetylene but it’s quite close, and propane is usually easier and cheaper to find
What I hate about this video is I found it after wasting a lot of time money materials trying to do what I started to belive was impossible. Ordered some liquid flux and it worked wonders. What the heck, wasn't even expensive why do no hardware stores anywhere near me not carry this stuff. Anyway thanks for this video it especially showing your first attempts that looked a lot like mine
I take my dirty Mop water with my Tide Pod chasers. Works fine. :D. I have an 80 gal hot water heater I cut one end out of to make an oil fired metal melter. Been thinking of turning one into a Solar Water tank and also maybe one into a Still Pot. See any issues with the idea?
For the sacrificial alcohol run, what if you take a couple of quarts of cheap whiskey and add it to however many gallons of water? Would that do the job?
I suck at soldiering I try soldering cooper to cooper for House plumbing and no matter how hot and clean I get the copper the soldier just beads off won’t Do what it’s supposed to do so I gave. Up and went to pex line
