Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

There is an angle on the clamp. All my flanges are flat. The only time I've had trouble with my flanges was when they weren't thick enough.

The angle for the flange face is 20°

Early on in the thread, someone used a wire /tube insert for the ring, this is will be my plan of attack - as the most common issue seems to be over flattening

Did my first EZ Flange today. Had a little problem with Hard Soldering the 1/4" tube. I pulled the tube too tight and flattened it. So didn't get the ends tight enough because they didn't match well and had opens on my tubing. Had more pieces so I tried again and it worked fine! Everything else went together fairly well except I used too thick of solder and it ran like a big dog. Flow was perfect just too much. I'll flatten out the solder next time so that won't happen again. I'll also not add more until I see that it has quit filling the join. Cleanup was tough. I'll probably cut back on the flux a bit too. I used Stay-Brite solder and Stay-Clean flux, a liquid, for the soft solder, and Stay-Silv 5 for the hard solder. I haven't soldered much lately, but I see what I did wrong. I've got a few more joins to do so I'll get more practice.


Thanks to Mac and Woodduck for their tutorials and everyone who had questions and replies. Reading this Forum has helped me figure out what's going on with my build.


Dan

Practise makes perfect!
The more you do the more you will learn. Don't forget a pic tells a thousand words and here we love pics. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Here's some pics of my first easy flange, it's all soft solder.
I'm still building the rest of a bubble plate system so it hasn't been thoroughly tested yet.

Nice work, mate! :text-coolphotos:

Just about to make a 3 inch flange...pics will follow

Turns out I cant cut 3inch pipe sqarely to save my life!
2 inch no problem! But 3 inch is too big for me to hold in the mitre box.
Anyone got any cheats to this?

Wrap a long bit of paper around the pipe. I use a roll of sand paper. You could use newspaper. Just ensure the paper fits snug on the pipe and the edges line up perfectly and you will have a nice straight line :handgestures-thumbupleft:

woodduck wrote:Wrap a long bit of paper around the pipe. I use a roll of sand paper. You could use newspaper. Just ensure the paper fits snug on the pipe and the edges line up perfectly and you will have a nice straight line :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Oh thanks bloke!!! My brain isn't working today and I thought there had to be a simple way to work it out lol.
Oh and good to hear from you again, I'm still working on my 3inch 4 plate bubbler that I started about 2 years ago. But this time I almost have all the bits to finish it, so I'll get it done soon.

Quick question, does it help or hinder if you heat the copper pipe just before bell ending it to start the flange?

Would prob bend easier but would also soften/weaken it :handgestures-thumbdown:

scottyd72 wrote:Turns out I cant cut 3inch pipe sqarely to save my life!
2 inch no problem! But 3 inch is too big for me to hold in the mitre box.
Anyone got any cheats to this?

Use a wood turners trick and make a 90degree jig to hold your copper. Picture a 'v' shape fixed in 3/4 of a box (bottom and two upright sides). Your pipe rests perfectly secure in the 'v' for you to cut.

bluc wrote:Would prob bend easier but would also soften/weaken it :handgestures-thumbdown:

Thanks bluc, I tried it and found the edges split easier, so next time I'll leave it cold.

Yonder wrote:

scottyd72 wrote:Turns out I cant cut 3inch pipe sqarely to save my life!
2 inch no problem! But 3 inch is too big for me to hold in the mitre box.
Anyone got any cheats to this?

Use a wood turners trick and make a 90degree jig to hold your copper. Picture a 'v' shape fixed in 3/4 of a box (bottom and two upright sides). Your pipe rests perfectly secure in the 'v' for you to cut.

Oh sounds good, I just can't picture it.

Here's my 3 inch easy flange, it's not finished yet as I've just finished silver soldering it with my MAPP torch and 3% silver solder. I still need to clean it up and file down the flange.

I don't heat the pipe first.

Your holding your torch too close mate, hottest part of the flame is at the tip of the blue.

Looks like you've gotten your flange a bit too hot there, that's why it's sort of bulged through the bottom. Probably got a little too much solder on as well.

Doing well mate. Practice is the key :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Have you watched my easy flange video? It might give you some pointers.

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=11390

woodduck wrote:I don't heat the pipe first.

Your holding your torch too close mate, hottest part of the flame is at the tip of the blue.

Looks like you've gotten your flange a bit too hot there, that's why it's sort of bulged through the bottom. Probably got a little too much solder on as well.

Doing well mate. Practice is the key :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Have you watched my easy flange video? It might give you some pointers.

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=11390

Ah thanks for the feedback Woodduck, I'ts my first successful go at silver soldering and using the map gas torch.
Yep need more practice and i'll get some too. I'll go have a look at your vid, thanks :handgestures-thumbupleft: