At some time in the past I heard, somewhere, mention of brazing using a TIG torch. From what I remember no flux was needed, just clean the mating surfaces and the gas flow would negate the need for flux. I do remember that rod containing zinc, was it?, was unusable.
Has anyone ever used this process and how did it work; any gotchas; is it usable where the joint is "socketed" ?
-- Cheers,
John B.
I have used it mostly for galvanized steel. With TIG brazing not much of the galvanizing get burned off. I intend to use it on some stainless Steel. And am expecting less problems with distortion because the temperature will be lower than welding.
Dan
Tig brazing will not fill a close fitting joint like it would if the whole assembly was heated enough to cause the filler metal to melt. It is easy to make nice fillets when tig brazing. Also, regular brazing rod is not a good choice because the zinc in the rod will boil off and you will end up breathing the fumes. Silicon bronze rod works very well for tig nbrazing. Eric
How much current do you need, compared to welding the same thickness? Roughly half, two thirds, or? Also, do you hold the torch further away to heat more area or do you keep it about the same distance as welding? Thanks for the advice.
Tig brazing will not fill a close fitting joint like it would if the whole assembly was heated enough to cause the filler metal to melt. It is easy to make nice fillets when tig brazing. Also, regular brazing rod is not a good choice because the zinc in the rod will boil off and you will end up breathing the fumes. Silicon bronze rod works very well for tig nbrazing. Eric
Thanks for that. The question arose regarding brazing bicycle frames. Two methods are used, one with "lugs" which essentially makes the joint into a "socket" joint and the other by butting the tubes and fillet brazing the joint. It sounds as though TIG brazing would be good for one method and not good for the other.
-- Cheers,
John B.
That's true. Tig brazing would work well for the second. A properly fluxed and brazed socketed joint is very strong but if you don't have much experience making this kind of joint it is easy to mess up. If you have experience tig welding and are pretty good at it then the second method would be best. Eric
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