Silicon Bronze on Blackened Steel 

Thank you!

David Lakatosh I’ve tried some miller harbor freight and can’t remember the name but Jody’s are definitely the best I’ve used

Metz's Mayhem the tig gloves are the best ones I’ve used so far

congrats

Wish the best for you, which college?

@@precisionarc Snow College. It's a small town technical community college.

Keith Jessop Hi Keith, I am curious as to what effect copper sulphate has on steel? Would you mind giving me some info? I do steel sculpture and I am always looking for different finishes. Thanks Mate.

@@simon9447 Search for Artfully Rogue/ copper sulphate on youtube..hopefully it will pop up. Queenslander.

Theres usually 2 types of gas for TIG. Pure Argon, or an Argon/helium mix for thicker materials. And for the project hes working on, for a better looking weld on thinner material, TIG Welding/brazing is the way to go cause it handles thinner materials better. And sometimes the WPS, or Welding Procedure Specification calls for TIG welding of a project.

That would be really cool, but I doubt there is any demand for it. Also, I don't know if the amperage control system is adequate or quick enough for pulse. Does the machine need the wave form capabilities of the new machines to do that or will the simple system on the old machines work? It is just a rheostat or potentiometer that controls the 330abp, so maybe electronics could adjust that quickly enough, or have a servo/stepper control an input device just as a person's foot would. Sometimes mine will pulse, if I move my foot fast enough :)

thanks for the good info

I think I had amperage set to around 145 but with pulse settings of 2 pps 40% pulse time and 25% background so actual amperage was probably around 75-100 amps depending on gap or were I was on the tube.

There are books and manuals out there. For mig welding, the machines will have charts or programs in them to get you started and from there people will adjust by experience. A common "rule" is to use 1 amp of heat for each thousandth of steel thickness, so 1/8" or 0.125" steel would use about 125 amps. With tig, it is most common to set the machine hotter than you need and just use the foot pedal or finger control to adjust heat, just as you use an accelerator pedal in a vehicle. When you figure out how much heat you need, you can adjust the machine so it gives you only slightly more than you need, giving you finer control at the pedal. If you are welding with lower heat but have the machine set at full power it can make the pedal real touchy. For example, the top notch on my tig is 230-460 amps and the middle notch is up to 230 or 250. For some material, the middle notch doesn't give enough power, so I use the top notch and then set the dial on the machine to maybe 40%. That limits the power to 322 amps and the pedal now starts at 230 amps and all the way down is 322, instead of the full 460 amps. Normally I use the middle notch that is 60-230 amps and leave the dial at 100% so the pedal is 60-230. The weld puddle tells me if I have enough heat, based on learning what to watch for. I'm not an expert on how the metal fails, but I would agree that brazing is like hot glue. I suppose it is possible for the brazing filler to tear if it has a strong bond to the base metal. Welding can be very enjoyable. If you haven't tried welding, definitely do it. If you can get an experienced welder to get you going, it will give you a quick taste of what it is like. It can take a lot of time to get decent, especially with tig. A class is a great way to start as I did in high school and college, but I spent a few months or so learning tig on my own before the class started since I bought a used tig machine.

Torches are usually rated better for DC than AC, as normally the heat flows into the work on DC and AC is more balanced, depending on machine settings. It depends on how hot your torch gets. While I have not used an air cooled torch, water cooled is great if you have flexible lines and a #20 torch, which is more compact than air cooled torches with higher amperage ratings. Even at 300 amps, my #20 torch never feels hot. It is a heavy duty flex head, so more bulky than most #20 torches but it handles anything I do. I would never use a fixed head torch. I built my own tig cooler with a 120v sureflow pump, which is the same kind of pump used in an RV (12v version). These pumps are very quiet. I bypassed the pressure switch and used a t fitting and valve to bleed water back to the tank to get 60 psi on the line to the torch. I read that the flow needed to be something like 45-65 psi and 1-2 quarts per minute. Water coolers aren't anything special or complex, so they just need to be reliable and hold up. You can run a torch off a water faucet and drain the water where you want, in a pinch.

@@CGT80 ok thank you

Not really, but you could use an oxy...

Sure, if you can pull on the part while you have heat on the tack weld, it can be done. I have done the same on steel parts with steel filler. Other times, heating the tack welds will allow the part to be adjusted, for instance if there was a gap when it was tack welded. In that case, just pushing the parts together or using a clamp while heating can close the gap. If there is more than a single tack where you wanted to break it, I would not expect it come apart.

exactly, I even went back and watch his video before I tried this...Abom rules

thanks Gib

Seth Strohm aluminum, stainless, chromoly, tool steel, cast iron. You’ll have to change up wire thickness, tungsten, and polarity sometimes. Do the research before hand. It’s a pretty cool process. Silicon bronze uses the amperage to melt the (copper+tin=bronze) wire onto the base metal. Oxy/Fuel brazing uses flame heat to melt the wire onto the base metal. Tig brazing is faster and cleaner.

@@penrodgarage5699 Joining aluminium with bronze using TIG - I didn't realise it was even possible, until I came across this page - very interesting option! Although it would definitely be something to avoid in any situation where a conductive fluid (like seawater, as one instance) might ever be present, as galvanic corrosion would have a high old time. In bygone years, at least in the Brit Commonweath, joining steel using bronze filler was generally called "Bronze welding" to distinguish it from the more commonly used brass, which was called "Brazing". The former gives a particularly good result compared with fusion welding where toughness is a consideration, as in situations involving repeated impacts.

I second the bottle request. At least I’d love to know where to get one.

I've bought several bottles like that off Amazon... I've also bought one from a beauty shop\hair salon supply store.

cody price I think your correct.

I think I had amperage set to around 145 but with pulse settings of 2 pps 40% pulse time and 25% background so actual amperage was probably around 75-100 amps depending on gap or were I was on the tube.

Silver solder with flux is what I have used to successfully braze stainless to copper, I have a video of it. Get the stuff for brazing A/C lines

If the copper was thick then it was sucking the heat away too quick, I've TIG welded copper to sst using 312, 309 will work also

@@precisionarc It was tin stainless and 3/4" copper elbow. I cleaned it well and thought I had it right. I will keep trying. Thanks for the advice.

@@robpridgen3791 If this is for a customer, I'd recommend letting them tell you what filler and process to use

+1

20-25cfh

@TowME trailers Thank you!

Are you using the right silicon bronze wire? They've got a version for Tig welding and more commonly available oxy brazing.

Start your arc, heat the base metal until it starts to sweat. Try tacking. Arc, dab, cool down. Repeat. I run 95 Amps on mild steel with D/C. Ensure the metal is thoroughly cleaned, your ground clamp is close, and your polarity is correct. I run 100% Argon shielding. Jody mentions that steel melts at roughly 2700 degrees, brazing wire melts at roughly 800 degrees. Grey, red, orange tungsten works well. Most other tungsten should work though. Silicon bronze easily fills large gaps, gets a bead on thin sheet metal, doesn’t destroy molecular structure of tool steel, etc. just did a bunch of brazing on a drift trike, I brazed a chromoly head tube to mild steel tubing. Weird angles, lots of prep work- its time consuming but unique. Pretty amazing and versatile process. Good luck to you. Just thought I’d share some tips that made all the difference for me- I’m still learning this process too.

@@jessehigley5283 lol yea im def running the correct wire. I have some from my local welding supply and then some from blue demon...

@@penrodgarage5699 hell yeah thanks for the tips... I just gotta keep practicing.

As Penrod mentions, cleanliness of the work and the filler wire (and the argon, even) can be major factors. To give a softer arc (which helps prevent parent metal from melting), avoid an acute angle on the electrode point, and ball the point a little with a brief burst of higher current over a piece of scrap.