Does Aluminum Brazing Rod Actually Work? Real World Fix Miter Saw Repair 

Thanks for watching! If you would like to support this channel please head to www.patreon.com/elementalmaker. Every patron gets a virtual hug and my unending appreciation. I will also build a small shrine to worship you. One of these is a lie.

I've used that stuff before too EM. If you clean it really good with a stainless steel wire brush, "V" out the break on all sides if possible, then fill the "V" cut with the melted rod, it actually works pretty good. At any place you stop, be sure to clean the weld area again with the SS brush because aluminum oxidizes very fast and the "solder" won't adhere well to the oxidized metal. It is probably faster and easier to TiG weld it if you have a TiG set up and ready to go. Best of luck to you, stay safe and healthy my friend!

Sometimes fixing something is more fun than buying something new.

Fan from Scotland love your work, workshop language much appreciated keep it up.

I would fill the back in with JB weld just for a little bit of extra reinforcement

Problem with cast is entrapped gas in the casting, when heated for brazing or welding the gas pockets expand and cause blistering and fracturing of the grain structure. It's almost a futile effort, you can bake it at 350F for a couple hours to artificially age it and refine the grain structure before welding as well

First off- CLAMP your work down!!! You want some degree of precision in the final part, but if you don't fix things in position, they are going to move. This is especially important for any welding / brazing as things move when they heat up and cool down.. Anyways those rods can work fairly well, but they work very differently than regular soldering or brazing.. The material runs and flows, but NOT into joints.. The joint MUST be Vee'd out to give surface area for the new material to stick to, you can't just butt the broken ends together. And instead of direct flame to the joint, you need to heat a large area around the joint and get the area just hot enough that when you scrub the tip of the rod into the joint, it starts to barely melt and wet out the surface. Then gently keep the flame playing over a large area to keep the temperature constant and keep scrubbing the rod into the Vee'd out joint surfaces until it's all coated and then increase the flame coverage a bit and NOW you can flow some of the rod and it will stick to what you laid down previously and completely fill the gap. Keep the heat just enough to flow where you need material, if you have too much heat, it will literally just run out of the joint like water.

I have that same miter saw. Well I have the rebranded version. I don't remember whos name is on it it was like husky or something but it worked. I mean it was bad but it worked. I did a few hardwood floors with it but when I got my contractors table saw I switched to that until I broke my hand thanks to kickback and then I was scared of the thing so I went back to the miter. Seriously though hardwood+kickback=bad. I shattered my knuckle and miraculously didn't lose a finger somehow. The full story on that accident if anyone's curious. I was being a distracted idiot making some ecig stands for a friend out of scrap bamboo flooring it was 2 - 4"x4"x3/4" squares glued on top of eachother with a couple holes in the top piece as the stands. I was pushing the blocks through the saw to clean up the edges when, being the true genius I am, decided to use one of the holes to push through. This hole was in the front/top right corner next to the fence and had my thumb bracing the backside. I pushed it through and then instead of lifting the piece, I decided to bring it back by just pulling it back but released my thumb so I just pulled from the front hole which is now on the back/trailing corner closest to the fence. This caused the backside to kick out away from the fence and into the blade. I was at least smart enough to stand to the side while doing this but my left hand was straight behind the blade and that chunk of wood made contact shattering my pinky knuckle in what's called a boxers break. The wood continued on into the steel garage door and put a large dent in it. I immediately flipped off the saw and counted my fingers out loud twice to make sure they were still there. I got lucky. I don't know how close my right hand came to touching the blade when it kicked but I assume it was very close. What was really fun was the fact I had a semester paper due a few days after this and me being the great procrastinating genius had not done it yet so I had to type it one handed... well tried to type it one handed as my left hand was in a cast. I decided I couldn't do it that way so grabbed the dremel and the little saw toothed blades. You know the ones that look like mini circular saw blades but have teeth and are made of metal. (High Speed Steel Rotary Saw Blade Set 6 Pc from harbor freight) MY amazing intellect said "yeah this is the perfect blade for this." You know with all the cotton wrapping inside the cast nothing can go wrong. So I start cutting away and who would have guessed the blade grabbed the cotton and got sucked straight down into my arm. Well thankfully dremel motors aren't that powerful and right about the time it got to my arm the cotton bound the blade/motor up. Yeah I switched to a normal cutoff blade at that point and was fine but sometimes I think I am a prodigal genius, a reincarnation of einstein, adroitness in all things. And that week was one of my finest. Seriously though don't be as dumb as I am.

I had a shitty fence on a cheap saw...I got a piece of 2x2x¼ aluminum angle, bolted to the saw and then used the blade to cut the required clearances. Works great...this method works really well for cutting thin material too because you can make a zero clearance fence too.

The only things this video needed was: clamps, flux and preheat 🥺

You must've pissed off the internet gods, took them two days to put this on my feed. Keep em coming just to spite them!

If it ain't done twice, it ain't done right

I've used a similar repair rod branded as 'Lumiweld'. Had great success with it but as others have said here vee the joint out a bit and use a small stainless steel brush to remove the oxide coating. Also helps if you have a piece of fine stainless wire rod and scratch the surface metal through the puddle of molten solder/braze. This helps the molten rod become fully amalgamated with the base metal. It does work well,its just a matter of developing a good technique.

Put on a sacrificial wood facing and run it through a jointed.

I'm amazed he didn't mend it with ruby

I tried to fix a 67 Mustang aluminum headlight bucket and it turned into a puddle of disappointment on the garage floor.

Glad to finally hear someone else had the fence issue. I have a 12" Craftsman from around 2000 which has the exact same issue. Never once got around to doing anything about it.

Cool vid ! In my experience these guys want a whole lot more heat that the melting point of the rod, otherwise they dont flow and just bead up because of surface tension. Cleaning the oxide layer with a wirewheel doesn’t hurt either.

I used these rods few weeks ago, it take some time to learn... the parts to be welded must be very hot to "wet" and penetrate well

There were so many double entendre, 12-year-old comments I could have made in the first 3 minutes, but I gave up because I couldn't type that fast. LMFAO!

Mine is like that too, but it happened after a piece of lumber jammed and spun around. Maybe yours was hurt the same way? Possibly when you dropped it and broke the handle? Maybe? This is actually a good repair idea, because the area is now nicely annealed and ready to be dropped again and then it can be “hammered into submission” without breaking. I think I would add another mounting bolt between the factory bolt and the turning part of the table. Then after torquing the inner bolts you can clamp the fence to a straight edge to straighten it and torque the outer bolts to hold the fence true. Then use the adjustment screw to align the blade to a true perpendicular to the fence.

One of the keys is to not heat the rod with the flame it will ball up and look like bird poop. Ive used this before welding copper to aluminum and worked great just takes a little practice keep up the good work.

Nice work Fixing the fence. As long as it's functional and works that's all that matters.

Great fix! Now, Some Monday morning quarterbacking for you. LOL You could've used clamps to hold both pieces steady against the level. The burning wood and will definitely contaminate the weld. Those rods are good enough to fix AC high-pressure lines.

Tin the ends with the rods and then force them together. Works much better.

I also have a factory fence like this. I ended up just putting a shim on the offcut side and smoothing some big along the rest :P

Greetings mate. I've used this type of alloy before. You need to heat the workpiece up to temp and then apply the rod. Don't heat the rod directly. Let the rod wick into the seam. My experience is it doesn't hold well on thin sections of material and seems to dissolve the material somehow.

My experience with the aluminium braze stuff has been to post heat it and let the higher zinc content creep into more of the base metal to get a decent joint. And as astute as you are you probably noticed zinc as in brittle but strong alloys of aluminum and that is definitely true of the joints so I always backed the welds with some scrap aluminum as well. Between the scrap AL and post heat allowing the zinc to creep I've always had a very strong joint with no sharp transitions between the alloys

Maybe try instructions? By brazing on wood your introducing a whole pile of contaminates. Maybe a better idea would be to clamp it to your sacrificial level and heat from all sides then start your flow. Cheers, Billy

Project farm did a great video not too long ago, testing out different brands of braising rod. They are definitely not all created equal. Also, I wonder if it would be possible to use solder flux to help that brand to flow better.

So before the flame is even lit I'm seeing a problem...the charring wood will contaminate the weld area

You basically just tinned the surface, you didn't get it hot enough to suck it down into the throat of the joint. -.- Tinning it for adhesion and then going back over it and actually making a nice weld pool/caterpillar over it seems to be the best way to use that stuff from what I've seen on here.. That and going back and doing the backside of the joint as well.. It really isn't a brazing rod, it's just a solder.

That torch head is supposed to be used with MAP gas. That's why you are having trouble getting it to start.

I've tried brazing aluminium profiles with a similar result. Afterwards, I read that you can make your own flux by dissolving boric acid in methanol. First de-oxidize the surfaces that you want to join. Immediately after that, cover the now bare aluminium with the solution. After evaporation of the methanol, the resulting boric acid film supposedly prevents re-oxidation and helps the brazing alloy to flow better. Haven't tried it yet, but maybe you want to give it a go.

I have a Dremel scroll saw with a cracked housing that I'm about to try and fix. I love my saw so I need to fix it...

We (my hubbs and I) have 2 suggestions for you... 1.) you should have clamped your fence to the level 2.) You should have done the back of the fence as well Other than that, good job. Maybe I'll come back after our project and lyk Howe it goes. Cheers!

I think you needed it beveled a bit, like doing a butt joint and more heat for the solder. Then again, the actual aluminum started to self destruct with just the propane flame.

Most of the problem was insufficient heat in the part. You have to heat in preferably a slightly reducing flame and heat the part to melt the rod, not melt the rod in the flame.

Try the green can brake cleaner at walmart its basically pure laquer thinner

You didn't want to clamp both pieces to your level? Also I believe you want it hot enough that when you touch it with your brazing rod that capillary action will draw it into the joint. I find it always takes some practice to get the timing right and just takes some practice on scrap. There's differences between brazing copper (yes brazing not soldering). Being that aluminum has a really nasty layer of oxide that's melting point is way above clean aluminum which the flux on your rods is supposed to remove. As long as there's a oxide coating on aluminum it's really tough to get two pieces to bond together.

I saw an ad years ago for a similar product years ago where they were magically patching big holes in the bottom of aluminum cans. Is this the same stuff and if so you should give the soda can thing a try.

Interesting results.

You need more heat. The aluminum needs to be hot enough to melt the rod on its own (like soldering copper pipe) otherwise its not going to get a good bond. Mapp gas at least is needed for anything with much mass.

I've been looking into these for a project I'm working on. They seem promising.

There's seems to be some soldering/brazing debate on these rods lol. Tried them out on a little gear housing (made of zamak) for my Atlas lathe, went in kinda ugly but the repair has held up for the last year or so.

As a good visual check for square .......... invert the cut piece so one face from the top of the cut is on the base, slide the two together and look for a gap. This will be twice your error so is easy to see ;0)

Sears/Craftsman's fading quality makes for entertaining, "colorful" Elemental Maker videos.

The melting point of these rods varies a lot, the cheaper rods melt close to that of aluminium , these ones seem to have a good safety margin. the burning wood would have contaminated the join, cleaning the metal should be done with a stainless steel or brass brush, grinding a chamfer along both edges and filling the V would be stronger , clamp the two pieces and use a stainless steel bicycle spoke sharpened to a point to scratch the base metal thru the molten puddle to increase adhesion

Next time use clamps to hold the piece to the level, grind the pieces in to a chamfer so the braze sticks. It's not the best fix but it does work

I was just getting on here to send you a message to say I haven't heard from you in a while and haven't seen any videos. To buy surprise low behold here's a video that's already a week old! Awesome awesome awesome. Looking forward to watching it. And I'll watch it while I'm on the clock so sorry if your healthcare premium goes up It's because I watch your videos. ROFL

When i was taken cabinet making in votech i was making like info center for guest visting the school all raised panel cabinetry and some1 had fucked up the shaper fence so everytime id get to the end of a board it would drop of one side just like 1/16-1/8th but it would fuck up the line on the raised panel my teacher taught me how to make a sacficial fence and true it up out of some countertop material (stiffest thing we had in the shop and unlike wood dosent move as much)

Grind a 45% angle on the broken sections. All the way around on both pieces. Fill in the V created by the 45's. Clamp your work down on a metal table. Preheat the table and then the work piece. Better yet do the above and Heliarc it. If you have the resources chuck it up in the mill and run a cleanup pass on it. JMHO.

Not sure on actual heat stresses when it cools, but can I ask why u didn't use the mounting holes & bolt to help hold laterally & keep square?

Ive used those rods for 30 years. Keep the joint out in the open not touching anyrhing and clamo it. You have to scratch the surface with the rod to break through the oxides. That stuff is a pain in the ass no mater what. I would make a fence out if angle iron.

It's better than the 1 i have i was cutting to fast and the blade bit in and ripped the fence right off and now i just have a piece of wood screwed on it and it works good and i didn't have to worry about the half round bit the blade removed what needed to be removed with use

Grind the edge's to make a V then fill with Brazing .just like welding steel you HAVE to have an angle on the edge.

don't use direct flame, heat the surrounding area and they flow perfectly . use a stainless brush to prep the area first. also clamp the job down.

Time for a new saw ;-)

I am a Journeyman welder and the only thing I can say after watching this is maybe try reading the directions to start. Either that or hire a pro or just go buy another saw. In any event, from what I can see you approached this whole thing like it was a big joke and were just looking for content to throw on RU-vid.

Love this video. Multiple LMAO!!! moments and lots of Thats what she saids. Have a good and safe day brother

I had the same sparker problem with my TS4000. Crack it open and mess with the piezo wire. I had to fully replace mine and it wasn't too bad, just a little fiddly. I think the wire oxidizes over time.

I got a Blue Demon X-Acto nife copy from Snap-On. They tried to make it even simpler than X-Acto, rezulting in the collet collar scraping agenst the blade wen you tried to titen it! SO, it woudnt hold the blade and trying to titen it with plierz woud just shave off more uv the collar till it dug too deep to turn anymore!

Let's hope it holds up. For the next 24 hours.. Maybe next time it would be good to have a fixture and weld it from the bottom?

Seems like maybe the torch melted the filler rod as much as the heat of the aluminum did, therefore the filler rod didn’t penetrate properly?

When you e said “piece of wood” instead of “dead tree carcasses” the mind boggles!!

I'm not sure you should have a long chain hydrocarbon source as the thing your clean brazing environment should be setting on. I know a lot of those compounds can serve as a flux, but most of them just serve as contamination. Also, it looks like you were mostly melting the rod with the torch as opposed to heating the metal and the metal then melting the rod. I havent used those so I cant say for sure, but you might have ended up with something that's mostly cold weld.

Im wondering why you didnt clamp the piece to the level? Would have held it in place during brazing and cooling. Good fix though!

I had the same problem with mine and i solved it by cutting it (instead of breaking it ;) ) and enlarging the holes of the fence to give me enough adjustment to be able to square both sides to the blades .

I don't have the bucks (or the first clue) for a welder, but sometimes a guy wants to slap a few pieces of metal together. Is brazing a good thing to look into?

You could've run it against a belt sander, or had it milled for a couple bucks. But this made a great video

I used some a while back and it said to scratch the rod on the aluminum a lot, I think to displace the Al2O3

Said fuck you to that fence. Lmao

Maybe a better fix would have been to put it on a stationary belt sander and sand that uneven side flat. I have had to do this to cheaper parts. Cheers, Billy in B.C., Canada.

Why not drilling/tapping two extra holes in both the fence and the saw base and thus screwing the fence down with two bolts per half?

Why didn't he clamp the 2 parts to the level?

Seems to me brazing your work on a WOOD surface is just adding to your contamination problems.

clamps are a wonderful invention . . . .

I have an ebike battery case I just had to cut open, have some of these to stick it back together. Possibly horrifying in the wrong hands, but what isn't.

light the wood on fire, would help keep the aluminum up to temp for brazing. Also the idea with brazing is not to spread directly in the flame, its like soldering you want the flow to happen not because of the torch melting the rod but because the metal is so hot the rod melts.

Does Blue Devil recommend a brazing Flux or paste . Frequently when we braze anything that is not copper to copper , we use a brazing paste

It's so frustrating when you buy a new machine and it's not right. Your first mistake was not testing the material with vinegar. Second was not buying some aluminium angle and cutting a new fence.

Clamps?

First class what not to do guide.

The guy demoing those rods made it look easy, but when I tried them 20 years ago I couldn't get them to work - oxy is probably too hot lol -. If it breaks again just make it out of steel.

If you would have wiped it with a flux brush it would have turned out perfectly. Use a map gas torch, it is far better! Don’t weld on wood, you’re contaminating your weld.

9:17 - I bet JB Weld would've held better than that braze did with less fuss. Check out Project Farm's test on glues, as I remember JB Weld came out pretty high on the lists for the strength tests. Anyway, definitely an interesting thing I didn't know about.

do both sides ?

9:18 haha😂 wasn’t expecting that

Nice work.. but I thought brazing is for sealing and not supposed to withstand any mechanical actress

Did you know from your element collection add americium 241 it’s not that easy to get and it and it lasts 400 years you can extract it from smoke detectors

The fact that you refused to c-clamp the damn thing down drove me insane. Also next time -> brazing flux. Get your flow on.

braze the part on the back side to get a good fillet filling the void in the back.

I ended up melting the aluminium thing I was trying to braze.

Y our not supposed to hit the rod with the flame heat the base metal till hot enough to melt the rood and flow it in and v groove the crack before trying to braze together it only sticks to ground clean metal

I find them frustrating. You gotta get em REAL hot. I use map instead of propane.

FAKE NEWS!!!!! no one has a level work bench like that "level" you are using suggests at 2:13. Just kidding love your videos it made my day to see you posted one

2:15 The result when the cheapest logo artist you can get your hands on is a furry

Maybe that casting isn't a good alloy. Even if it is a good alloy, the backside of that casting had awful thin webbing. That part would need to go into a well-heated mold and the cool slowly before being de-molded. I would bet they just heated the molds enough to get something that sorta looked good and then busted it out as soon as they were sure it was solid. It's a damn shame when you pay for something like that and some little PITA shortcoming that would have cost all of a nickel to have fixed in the factory makes a tool that cost 10,000 times that to be almost unusable. I would be tempted to have used a mold release on the saw base, slather up that fence with JB weld and slide in a piece of straight and square stock. Let it set up, bust lose the stock and clean up the fence. That would basically make a cast in place fence shim.

Wouldn't a oxyacetylene torch make it way hotter and better chance of it flowing further in?

You've just done it wrong as you're not supposed to heat the exact place you putting the brazing material to. The idea is to heat up the sides enough the brazing rod would melt on them not in the flame. That is way more tricky technic but the result is way more rewarding as well. By my own experience I've managed to braze back a piece of the rear wheel bracket on an alu bicycle frame. It did last for one and a half of a year of every day usage until the friend I've lend it out to, tried to "true up" the rear wheel position with a pry bar%)