Visibility when brazing

I recently starting practicing brazing with oxy propane. I’m totally new to brazing. Today I joined two about 30mm tubes, with .9mm thick walls. I did get the two tubes to join, feels very strong but doesn’t look good at all.

One problem I seem to have is that it was finding it hard to see where the two metals touch, it seemed like the yellow/orange part of the flame was hard to see what is going on. I may not have the right glasses, I was using some green shaded glasses that came with my laser engraver, they have no information on them. I wonder if I need more light generally in my work area. After brazing and taking off the glasses my eyes do feel a bit weird, so I think they might not be dark enough. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

I think most people use shade #3 or shade #5 welding glasses for brazing (dark green tint, sounds similar to what you’re currently using). I’ve also heard people recommend didymium glasses which are quite a bit more expensive but are better at filtering out the yellow and orange light which can sometimes overwhelm your field of view. I don’t have personal experience with didymium glasses so others will have to elaborate if you want more details.

When I first started practicing brazing, I also remember being frustrated by how hard it was to see what was going on. The experience of brazing is nothing like watching videos of people braze. I found that once I had done 15 or 20 practice joints, things started to slow down enough for me to “see” what I was doing and feel somewhat in control. If you’re brand new to brazing it may just be a matter of getting more reps - there’s a lot to process all at once when you’re first starting out.

Excessive application of paste flux will also make it more difficult to see what you’re doing.

Dy:


Shade 3 glasses:

Both are with oxy/propane and that is rack sized tubing (probably 3/8). Didynium helps a lot.

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Wow, that looks like something I’d like to try!

Which exact glasses are you using? Searching for Didymium on the web it seems to me like most if not all of these are a lighter tint than shade #3 welding glasses, is problematic?
image

I think the best lenses for this are from Philips Safety and are either the BoroTruView or BoroView lenses in an appropriate shade. I used BoroTruView 3.

Even better than that would be to get them in custom frames from the Hahnster.

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I use ones from Phillips that are that purple color. I wear flip down #3 shades over them. That lets me flip them up as soon as the torch turns off. Here is an ancient photo:

Hahn’s glasses look pretty nice too and less cumbersome, but these ones always worked for me.

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Another less expensive option:
https://www.waleapparatus.com/product/polycarbonate-sodium-flare-uvir-glasses-in-blue-geek--designer-frame---style-geek-rad-

B3 Series: The B3 Eye Protection Series add a welder shade #3 to reduce brightness when working with borosilicate glass. Lampworkers with a need for added eye protection and additional brightness reduction can count on the B3-Series to provide maximum protection when handling borosilicate glass, including Sodium Flare, UV, and IR protection.

Really a game changer when going from a standard shade 3! They ship with a small soft glasses case.

thanks everyone for the thoughts and suggestions! Glad I’m not the only one who has at least some issues seeing their work. And yes at some point yesterday while brazing I realized that I’d put on too much flux and really couldn’t see through it. As for the glasses, yes now I want to get some of these didymium glasses, but wow all of them are kinda expensive. Never the less I will find a way to get some.

personally, I agree with everyone else’s input here. I would add that you are correct in your assumption that the area lighting will have an affect. I’ve noticed it is much easier to see what is going on when I have a better lit area, even when wearing the proper glasses.

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Yeah I’ve been using didymium since the early '80s, always with a green lens over it. Green on the flip-up like @Alex showed, super valuable, I couldn’t live without it.

If you silver-braze only, and in short spurts like most hobbyists (not all day) then a 2.5 green lens is probably enough, but I’m not a doctor, this is my only-slightly-educated opinion. When I was a full-timer I used a #3 over didymium, did that for 20+ years, and my eyesight is still pretty good for a 70 year old, so I probably didn’t do much long-term damage. Though we’ll never know, will we? I think industrial sources will say you need a #5.

I still use #3 over didymium for my occasional home-handyman brazing and I still feel like I can see as much as I need to. I think it’s probably true that beginners will benefit from a lighter shade more than a veteran, who is more attuned to the subtle clues, knows what he’s looking at.

BTW I disagree that more flux makes things harder to see, not to me anyway. I have always used a lot, and a couple thousand frames later I can say I didn’t notice any downside from it. Oh except when a glob of molten flux drips down and lands on your TinManTech ultralight torch hose and melts a hole in it.

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Excitement!!!

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