to custom tube chassis builders

[longviewskyline]

ive been thinking about building some one off tube chassis, to everyone that builds such rigs, what are yall using? tig weld? brazing? mig weld? any feedback would be greatly appreciated

[Charlie-III]

Silver solder is the biggest way to do it, brazing next, then various forms of welding.

[CrawlinClodKiller]

Um silver solder is what you use for brazing. TIG is the ultimate, but you need to be good at it. It can also be done with mig. A few people will tack with mig or tig then braze the rest of the joint with silver solder. They all work.

[78bucket]

i used brake line (1/4") that we had laying around the shop and a mig welder. just takes time. good luck and have fun doing it. chris1

[BladeMech]

Harris Safty-Silv 56, Harris Stay brite flux, 3/16 solid steel rod and a cheap torch set up from Home Depot. I use a vise and vise-grip pliers to do my bends. Solid rod doesn't kink so you do not have to have a fancy bender.

This question has been asked 100 times too so you could search for better and more in depth answers. Good luck and just have fun, steel is still pretty cheap fo if the first one sucks just sell it as some libral arts student project.....er' whater.

-Jeff

[longviewskyline]

thanks everybody!!!!!!!!

[Rupert]

Using a a hand held brake line bender works well to make smooth bends easily. The tig welding will be the strongest.

[bob1961]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Using a a hand held brake line bender works well to make smooth bends easily. The tig welding will be the strongest.

i'm sure it is, but i tried to tear apart some sample joints i brazed with 3/16" brakeline and safety-silv 45 and after multiple tries i rip apart the brake line without any harm done to safety-silv brazed joint ....for just under 35 bucks for a trigger torch and mapp gas kit and 20 dollar safety-silv kit i got going with brazing for bout 55 bucks ........bob

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[spookyseven]

One of the advantages of welding is you can fill gaps if you cut the piece a little short or the wrong angle. With brazing you want your pieces to fit together as close as possible before brazing. On the downside with welding is it takes a lot of time grinding the welds down to make it look good and its very very time comsuming to make them look good, but with brazing you just need a little work with a file or sandpaper.

[SDS Customz]

Originally Posted by spookyseven

One of the advantages of welding is you can fill gaps if you cut the piece a little short or the wrong angle. With brazing you want your pieces to fit together as close as possible before brazing. On the downside with welding is it takes a lot of time grinding the welds down to make it look good and its very very time comsuming to make them look good, but with brazing you just need a little work with a file or sandpaper.

Tig makes it fairly clean with a .040 tungsten or so you can seam most metals without any filler rod. for filler rod I use 308 stainless in a .040 rod

Small parts=small tungsten and filler= very nice welds.

Patience helps as well.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by CrawlinClodKiller

Um silver solder is what you use for brazing.

Ummmm.....wrong-o.
Both are considered "hard soldering", silver solder is for silver soldering, brazing rod (mostly brass) is used for brazing.
While some use the 2 materials & methods interchangably when describing them, they are in fact a bit different.

[jmz6]

Harris Safety-Silv is a brazing alloy. I have used Safety-Silv on numerous builds and have not had a problem, the metal will bend before the joint is compromised

[dieselfuel]

i use 1/8" brazing rod from a local hardware store. for some reason i don't trust that silver shit.

[scale4x4]

I just use a mig welder i got from harbor freight lol.

[freetimecrawler]

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

Ummmm.....wrong-o.
Both are considered "hard soldering", silver solder is for silver soldering, brazing rod (mostly brass) is used for brazing.
While some use the 2 materials & methods interchangably when describing them, they are in fact a bit different.

Ummm.... gonna have to disagree with you here. The Harris Safety Silv is either 45% or 56% Silver compound, and it is brazing alloy. The rods maybe mostly Brass, but the 2 methods are the same, both are considered "brazing" The biggest difference is the amount of heat needed.
Silver solder is for plumbing and electrical applications where lead solder is illegal. Sweat soldering for plumbing, and brazing with Safety Silv are very close as far as method goes, since both use a capillary action.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by freetimecrawler

Ummm.... gonna have to disagree with you here. The Harris Safety Silv is either 45% or 56% Silver compound, and it is brazing alloy. The rods maybe mostly Brass, but the 2 methods are the same, both are considered "brazing" The biggest difference is the amount of heat needed.
Silver solder is for plumbing and electrical applications where lead solder is illegal. Sweat soldering for plumbing, and brazing with Safety Silv are very close as far as method goes, since both use a capillary action.

We can both split "short curly hairs" here ("maybe I started it")

Hard soldering covers silver soldering as well as brazing. Soft soldering is usually used for low pressure plumbing while hard soldering is used for higher pressures.
Ask a HVAC guy what he does, is it SILVER SOLDERING which is DIFFERENT from brazing. Both are hard soldering.

Nuff said on my part.

I will now bow out, good/bad/indifferent.

[blwn71]

i used the solder process it worked good for me

[freetimecrawler]

Originally Posted by CrawlinClodKiller

Um silver solder is what you use for brazing. TIG is the ultimate, but you need to be good at it. It can also be done with mig. A few people will tack with mig or tig then braze the rest of the joint with silver solder. They all work.

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

Silver solder is the biggest way to do it, brazing next, then various forms of welding.

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

Ummmm.....wrong-o.
Both are considered "hard soldering", silver solder is for silver soldering, brazing rod (mostly brass) is used for brazing.
While some use the 2 materials & methods interchangably when describing them, they are in fact a bit different.

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

We can both split "short curly hairs" here ("maybe I started it")

Hard soldering covers silver soldering as well as brazing. Soft soldering is usually used for low pressure plumbing while hard soldering is used for higher pressures.
Ask a HVAC guy what he does, is it SILVER SOLDERING which is DIFFERENT from brazing. Both are hard soldering.

Nuff said on my part.

I will now bow out, good/bad/indifferent.

Not to beat a dead horse here, and I'm not trying to be a dick, but....
I'm still a bit fuzzy on what the dissagreement really is here. Are you saying Harris Safety Silv isn't a brazing alloy, but a Silver solder,which is different then a brazing alloy?
In my area of the country, HVAC guys and plumbers, myself included, braze for most AC/heating applications, and sweat solder using a silver solder for most plumbing applications. Both identical proceedures, just different materials with different melting points. after over 25 years doing HVAC/plumbing, I guess I still haven't figured out what the differences are?