I'm not a welder or plumber by trade, all this just works for me.
Various terms are used for hard soldering or brazing, even several welding shops have used the term "silver solder" for solder/rod that dosent contain any silver at all. What they mean is that the rod has the same characteristics as silver solder without actually having any $ilver in it.
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got thin copper plating on it, 1/8thX1/16, & about 18" long. Shop around!! There are 3 industrial shops locally (one net based but I can order O/L and pick up at their warehouse) however, one of the locals was HALF the price of the others,over the counter, so look around.
The second, you might find, if you are lucky, same alloy as the first, but, 1/8" square and 3'long, one stick goes a long way! Its not plated and ends up looking ugly after a time, steel wool cleans it up nicely, and is whitesh under the crud.
Third is real $ilver solder, not plated, silver tarnishes badly, lots of stuff react with it. (ie NEVER put rubber bands around $ilver ware, unless you like to polish silver)( I think its sulpher compounds in the rubber) Steel wool fixes that. note the 'buttery' color.
Next is silicon-bronze rod shewn is 1/16" rod, also refered to as copper-bronze and even as silver-bronze, by some, its not silver. It is copper electroplated to keep clean. It looks like the real silver solder, buttery yellow. This is the really neat stuff. If you have a tig welder or someone who is tig welding your project together, you, or they can braze copper 2 copper, SS 2 SS, and this is the best trick, copper to SS.
Lastly, (brass) brazing rod is shewn as an example.
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If you can gas weld (braze), you can pick up tig welding (brazing).
The biggest thing for me was learning NOT to lift the torch away when finishing a weld or lifting to control the heat. Its like learning to drive stick shift after 30 years of automatic transmissions. Plus you HAVE to get into a comfortable position to do a good job.
comes to mind This welder is an excellent ac-dc stick welder too.
Who can give the make and model of my workbench? On the bottom, make & model of the storage bench?? One should be easy.
Harbor Freight makes a few tig units mainly with al-u-minium windings, which mainly limit duty cycle, and copper takes fairly high current rating as its an excellent heat conducter.
Actually I use an oxy acet 'rosebud' tip on my torch and use propane instead of acetelyne, its cheaper, and with less heat energy, easier for me to control the heat. I had to buy a propane regulater tho.
What else? Oh yes the tig welder I bought through the company I work(ed) for, the welding supply business for the project gave me a discount on top of a complete package special price the were runnibg at the time. Dont be ashamed to ask for such savings, even if they only remotely apply, the worst they can say is no.
One problem with SS, especially cheap pots and lids, is there is a lot of crap in the SS alloy and too much heat will actually creat pits and sometimes tiny holes in the metal. Ive de-alloyed the metal and ended up with black stains which still showed up after sandblasting. Tig welding solves this nicely, though you still must have everything CLEAN.
Comments are welcome. Theres stuff that dos'nt come to mind right now, for better or worse, , , -hey-
Off topic here, a news letter I get from an organization I am in had an article 'The Parlance of Tudor Palaces' by Bill Plachy, about words about castles. One of which: , , ,"The 'buttery' was logically enough, a part of the royal kitchen. However, it had nothing to do with butter (all ourcontemporary bakery and restaurant names notwithstanding). In fact, it referred to "butts," as in casks of wine or spirits. The 'buttery' was the place where the booze was kept. Apparently anything alcoholic was the favorite target of theft, so only the most trusted of retainers could hold sway there. That worthy individual was called the "butler." fwiw
came to mind I was at recyclers and found a SS 10" round RV / camper sink, nice, heavy, wide flange, about 1-1/2" hole for drain, a crease (where the drain fitting/plumbers putty would go) you could use as a guide for enlarging to 2" or even 3" column, its very stiff, strong. It fits nicely in the end of a SS keg, check it out, , ,
One is a Mercedes, the other looks like a bed but closer inspection there may be a Porshe or a Karman Ghia in there somewhere.
