Homemade 4" SS spool

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Tazewell
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Homemade 4" SS spool

Post by Tazewell »

Here she is.Image

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acfixer69
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Re: Homemade 4

Post by acfixer69 »

I like it if it's what I think. Butt soldered.
Tazewell
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Re: Homemade 4" SS spool

Post by Tazewell »

Butt-Brazed? (If thats a word/phrase)with 40% Silvaloy.

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Badmotivator
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Re: Homemade 4" SS spool

Post by Badmotivator »

It looks nice! I want to warn you though. I did a lot of soldering on my boiler, and have not had a failure or break. But I also did a butt-solder just like yours on a 2” pipe, and it broke in the middle of a run, causing havoc and injury.

If that spool is going to be on your column, i recommend that you have a safety cable holding any part of your rig that depends on this piece. My condenser and parrot fell when mine broke, broke a collection jar, stabbed my foot, scared everyone and made a mess. Hope that helps.
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acfixer69
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Re: Homemade 4

Post by acfixer69 »

BM, could you tell me more about the 2"butt fit that failed. Maybe a pic of the failed piece? I always prefer a socket fit but when necessary I have butt fit and never to my knowledge had one fail. I have been soldering and brazing similar and dissimilar metals ex. copper, SS, bronze & carbon steel for almost 50 years. I would like to know what went wrong with yours.

AC
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Badmotivator
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Re: Homemade 4" SS spool

Post by Badmotivator »

acfixer69 wrote:BM, could you tell me more about the 2"butt fit that failed. Maybe a pic of the failed piece? I always prefer a socket fit but when necessary I have butt fit and never to my knowledge had one fail. I have been soldering and brazing similar and dissimilar metals ex. copper, SS, bronze & carbon steel for almost 50 years. I would like to know what went wrong with yours.

AC
Sorry, I don’t think that I took pictures of the failed joint. I can describe it in more detail though.

This was a pretty thin-walled 2” stainless pipe and a standard 2” tri clamp ferrule, butt-soldered together with Harris sta-brite 8. After soldering I sanded it down inside and outside until it felt seamless and smooth. This left a very little contact between the stainless and the solder. I used this spool in my riser. Above it was a couple of 90s and then hanging off the right was my shotgun condenser and my parrot. The weight of those downhill pieces was enough to crack the soldered joint.

Brazing might be much stronger, and if you leave more contact area than I did (i.e. don’t grind the braze down too much) you will get more strength. My spool didn’t fail right away, so it was at least close to strong enough. :)
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acfixer69
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Re: Homemade 4

Post by acfixer69 »

Thanks for the good description sounds right on to me. If the thin wall SS was the fail which little contact to me a bit of backer stock would have made it work. I love tig weld but feel the folk here need to know it is an over kill for what we do but is a nice one if its in your skills and /or budget. I've got a nice Lincoln squarewave but it don't go to the job site so oxy/ace is my travel rig. And has served me well. Strength is fine if common sense is used.

AC
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shadylane
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Re: Homemade 4

Post by shadylane »

@ Tazewell
If it don't leak, smack it with a hammer, if it still don't leak, all is good :lol:
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