Hey all!
How’s my brazing? All done in a single pass with no tinning pass, 1/16" rods on the left 4 and 3/32" on the last 4. All joints rougy mitred to the tube with less than a fingernails gap, inside and outside cleaned with emery, and wiped down with brake cleaner before fluxing and brazing with a 1/4" neutral flame. It’s a bit of a step back from previous fillet joints, I’m new to the gas fluxer and I’m still trying to figure out how it brazers… First thoughts on the gas fluxer was that I needed a bigger tip to get the neutral flame size I wanted and that there was a noticeable difference in the puddle when liquid, it’s comparable to a shielding gas in the sense that the puddle didn’t skin over and oxidise
Number 3 tip
4-5psi oxygen and acetylene
Inline gas fluxer using Comweld Vapaflux
Gasflux nickel bronze rods 1/16 and 3/32
It’s hard to judge how to improve your technique from photos alone, but here are some suggestions:
- It looks like you’re adding filler before the tube is up to temp. That’s how you get blobby fillets. When the tube is up to temp and you add filler, the filler should flow outwards to form ideally a perfectly formed fillet that needs very little filing afterwards. When I used a gasfluxer I still added a thin layer of paste flux as a temp gauge.
- Your fillets aren’t even maybe because your torch is too far away from the tubes. Get that sucker right in there when adding filler and then immediately move the torch away to let the puddle solidify. I’ve explained in other posts that fillet brazing can work almost exactly like pulsed TIG welding.
- It looks like you’re struggling on the outside ears. That’s where I see the largest ridges. My preference has been to always point the torch towards the center of the joint all the way around. And make sure when brazing around the ears to have the joint nearly flat. Gravity will help keep the puddle in place.
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DO NOT use brake cleaner as a degreaser before brazing or welding. You can create nerve gas!
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Oh good lord how have I not killed myself already… Thanks!.. How about methylated spirits or acetone? I got lots of that spare
And get the squeezy dispenser bottles! Cleaner, safer, and more efficient!
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Will have to order some sifbronze 101 and try it out… How does it compare to gasflux nickel bronze? Coming from brazing with whatever I could get my hands on, gasflux rods are a godsend and work amazingly!
