Artist-- MAPP gas torch for brazing?

I had an earlier thread/post just yesterday, thank you for all the input. To follow up on that (now that I made a trip to Home Depot this Saturday morning)... what about my using MAPP gas for brazing/soldering aluminum and copper? Home Depot has a MAPP gas kit for $40, $60 if also including a dual-cylinder head and an oxygen cylinder in addition to the mapp cylinder-- claims it can do cutting also. Home Depot also has aluminum 1/4" and 1/4 rods and thin (1/8" or so) aluminum plate, all 36inch long; plus they have plenty of thin (1/4" or 1/2" hollow copper tubing)-- soft metals-- wouldn't the MAPP gas be enough to solder join such metals for figurative art sculpture, so that I could avoid an arc welder or acetylene?

One of my concerns with arc welding, much as I sort of would like that since it would really join the metals (and I took arc welding in High School, many many years ago), is that arc welding requires wearing a dark face mask so that how the heck would I see what I am working on as an artist until I get a spark going? Figure art with metals would require good sight when manipulating the wires, etc.

Reply to
Beowulf
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You really should save your money and buy a 110 volt mig welder or oxy - acetylene. When joining with a mig you just set the pieces together and then tack weld. To tack you place the nozzle of the gun on top of hte joint with the wire aimed at the joint. You can then use your helmet or put your free gloved hand over the weld location to shield the arc. Pull the trigger for half a second and you are done. Brazing with MAPP gas alone is slow and only good for small and thin pieces. Randy

Reply to
Randy Zimmerman

I agree with Randy. MAPP gas isn't that much hotter than plain propane. And the small disposable cylinders of oxygen are very expensive for the amount of oxygen you get.

You might be able to get by with just a propane torch ( or Two when you need more heat ) on small things. If you are going to try that, get a few insulating firebricks to help hold the heat in, and try ebay for some silver solder and flux.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

"Beowulf" wrote: (clip)(and I took arc welding in High School, many many years ago), (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Must have been MANY MANY MANY years ago, and you have forgotten what it's like. You DON"T look through the helmet while you are forming and arranging your work. You either raise the helmet, or take it off completely. You don't look through it until you are ready to strike an arc. Just about everyone agrees that the autodarkening type is far easier to use, because it allows you to start the arc precisely at the point where you want it.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

I'd like to point out something. Look at the price of those oxygen bottles! $12 for 1.4ft^2 of oxy! That's nuts! Perhaps an O/A silversmith's torch would be more appropriate?

Beowulf wrote:

Reply to
Josh Sponenberg

Can't recommend any particular brands, but you can also get oxy-MAPP torches that use disposable MAPP but refillable O2 cylinders to get around the ridiculous cost of the disposable O2. (Ten years ago I looked at a mini torch with disposable O2 and calculated the operating cost at a bit over $1 per minute, haven't bothered looking at the price again since.)

Reply to
Joshua Putnam

Yeah, I just drilled and nibbled most of the bottom out of an empty disposable oxygen cylinder, carefully welded a 3/8" plate to the bottom,over the hole, then drilled and tapped the plate and screwed in an oxygen hose coupler. Now I can use the mini torch for teensy sheet metal, without the large bulk of the O/A torch hindering my precision movements. (I just set the oxy regulator to ~25psi and use the little bottle regulator for adjusting the flame.) Dunno of it was worth my time, (I do most all of my work on 16ga or thicker, which is fine for the o/a torch.) as I haven't used it in probably 10 months.

Reply to
Josh Sponenberg

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