Bronze brazing questioni

[clive]

The last time I went to buy some rods at my local welding supply they didn’t carry them, said they would order them in on request but it wasn’t worth keeping them in stock so I went home and got some from ebay.

[CaddmannQ]

I had a craftsman C clamp that was cast from malleable iron and it developed a crack. It also needed straightening. I did it all with oxy acetylene and welded it back together with a highly carburizing flame. I haven’t broken it yet but then I’m not doing industrial work. It was Weldcote er70s-2 filler.

The last thing that I put together with brazing rod was a little drilling tool I used to put irrigation pipes in the ground about 3 feet. It was made from light gauge conduit and light rod and a brass hose fitting. It looks like crap but it’s still held together and it’s because I cleaned the metal really well before I tried to braze it together. Otherwise I just Glob on the brass because it’s cheap.

I’ve kept those rods sealed up in a tube and they are at least 12 years old now.

Stay Silv White Flux is mostly borax. I have that even though we keep borax. At $8 a scant cup it’s over 10x the cost of using powder and mixing it where necessary.

But they sell the same stuff for dental work at $17/2oz! Or about eight times the cost of Stay silv. They’re joining SS with 55% silver.

[Norm W]

The borax can be used by heating the rod and dipping it in the powder or just sprinkling it on the hot metal. I welded two engine blocks back together with (if i remember) MG600 rod. the first was a JD "M" block that had been broken when the tractor hit a woodchuck hole. Put the block on the wood stove in the shop. The walls of the shop, you could throw a cat through the cracks. It was a bout 30 outside but 80 in the shop. You could only weld about an inch before the heat drove you away. It took about two hours to finish. We the filled the stove up and covered the whole thing with a fire proof blanket. It went back in the tractor and as far as I know it is still running. Did the same type of thing to the motor mounts of a fork lift that one of the employees backed through a door way with the mast up. It took a 60 ton press to straighten the steer axle. That was still running when I left the company.