silver soldering

[stillgotit]

Hey guys I'm having some trouble silver soldering. I tried to silver solder my condensor coil to a end cap with two holes drilled in it with the copper ends running through the holes. when i heated it up the flux turned hard and the solder just sat there in a blob. what am i doing wrong? is it too hot? not hot enough?

cheers guys

[blond.chap]

Hey mate, few questions for you:
- What kind of solder is it, the sticks with coloured bands (if so what colour)? Or in a packet (if so what brand and product)
- What kind of flux are you using
- What kind of torch do you have (propane, mapp, oxy)

[Camikaze]

Hey mate, are you meaning soft solder? Silver solder is brazing only and you'll never get it hot enough with a standard torch.

If you are meaning soft solder, it sounds like you're burning the flux. Solder won't flow in a million years with burnt flux. Are you heating the join directly?

Have you had a read of the soft soldering tutorials?

soft soldering tutorial

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

[stillgotit]

hey guys thanks i think i got the wrong stuff :angry-banghead:
its cigweld silver solder and La-co silver brazing flux paste. and using a burnzomatic torch

What solder do i need to buy to solf solder? or can i still silver solder it?

[unsub]

Bernzomatic plumbers solder or Aquasafe will work fine and you can get them both from Bunnings. As Cam says you won't get silver solder hot enough with a standard torch so one of the 2 solders mentioned will be fine for soft soldering.

[blond.chap]

I got tricked by that too, I don't think that stuff is what's normally called silver solder.

What you want is Aquasafe soft solder and bakers liquid flux. You can find these in bunnings either in the place with the other soldering stuff (torches etc.) or next to the brass and copper fittings. It's in 500g rolls.

Then take a quick look at the soldering tutorial and you should be golden, let us know how you go.

[stillgotit]

Cheers guys ill head back to binning then

[Brendan]

I you do want safe silver solder, find some Cigweld Commweld SBA 115 (15% silver).

It's strong and safe for distilling purposes (15% silver/75% copper)...you'll find it in welding supply stores.

Bunnings also has a Consolidated Alloys silver solder, which according to the MSDS seems safe for our uses, but I haven't used it or looked into it in detail...

[stillgotit]

hey guys after watching a few youtube vids I managed to silver solder it. Took a bit of effort but turned out ok for my first go. ill try post a cpuple photos soon

[bt1]

Howdy,

Use mainly Silver solder. .. A few hints...

I use Consolidated Alloys Silver Solder 5% rods they are safe and with sufficient heat work well.
5% rods can span gaps of upto 4 mm so can re build or fill
15% rods aren't cheap but they flow and work well and don't "lump" up generally speaking
Silver solder requires no flux but prefers a clean non mirror polished join.
For joins of upto 2"/50mm a TS 4000 Bernzo Mapp gun will do the job
Larger than 2" and notably on 4"/100mm use a LPG burner to sit work on then apply the Mapp gun.

hope that helps


cheers
bt1