soldering alum tubing
 

I've been thinking how I'm going to build my tuber. I have what is basically a butane operated snap on solerding iron set. If I do not put any of the tips that come with it on it there basically a jewers torch. Would butane get hot enough to solider my tubes? I'd rather not have to use steel and my mig welder just for the weight alone.

I don't really have an answer for you, but I was pondering using that "Alumalloy" stuff......

Butane will melt silver solder when doing steel stuff, very easy

Butane will nto be hot enough to do Aluminum tube or rod
you need Map gas or oxy
You need 1200 *

So far I have No luck at brazing but Silver solder and my little butane torch is super easy when I made my first new axle with stainless 1/4

do a google search

let us know

You don't need 1200*................since the aluminum itself will melt at that point.


IMO, don't bother with the Alumiwled or Durafix or whatever. From my experimenting with it, it is great for filling gaps, but is lousy for holding pieces together. You want Harris Al-Braze. http://www.harrisproductsgroup.com/c...lloys.asp?id=2 And although it does work, it takes A LOT of practice to get consistent with (much more so than brazing steel).

So I can use silver soldier on Alum tubes? I'm just a stupid MIG welder user for the 1:1 stuff. New to the small gauge a-fixing parts.."thumbsup" I don't think I want to go with stainless just cause of the cost. The alum "welding" products look great at the car event they sell it at but I bought some years ago and it didn't work worth a dam.

Sounds like it's time to learn to use the TIG welder ! It's not that hard,especally if you have welding knowledge allready. Maybe you have one where ever you are wire feed welding ?

I am MIG welding in my garage. I know HOW to use a TIG I just don't have the grand for a good TIG welder. I build everything I need to weld up till now with my MIG and some good ol steel. I know TIG is the best to do but that's out of the question and I am not going to hire someone to do it for me since I am fully able to do it myself.

Well I got the stuff to start the construction from a local welding supply place. I'll post part numbers and progress on how the "welds" come out. It's a powder flux and alum brazing rods that have a low melting point so I can use my butane mini torch.

There is a wire and gas combo to mig aluminum. Just do that. You can get halfway decent weld on alum with a mig if you switch the leads for the gun. But the right gas will make it nice."thumbsup". I will get back to you. Let me call my father he is a veteran welder, we were talking about this for one of my tuber builds I have coming up. But I can't remember what gas he said to use. I will pm you with the answer.

Prob. is my mig tank is already a mix of argon and oxy I think and I don't have the alum wire and sleve for the MIG gun.

Well I tried my "micro" torch last night and didn't get real good results. I don't know if it was the flame that didn't get really that hot to melt the brazing rods or the fact that I had them laying on a ceramic tile to protect the table they were on. I'll take the stuff to my garage tonight and use my oxy/acet cutting torch not to cut but to braze. I'll post the results later on tonight

ok I saw the video from Double J and saw that he used steel tubing and a standard plumbers torch. What exactly solder or braze was used? I stopped at a local hardware store and they didn't know what would have been used. I may just go with steel tubing instead of alum..

If your going with steel just mig it. These are some of my results.:lol:

Alu-Weld
 

I have used Alu-Weld (Dura-Fix) rod with good results. With some practice it really isn't bad to work with. It is a bit harder than alu, so you can drill, tap, grind, file, sand, and paint it.

The Maxx crawler axles were my first attempt a year ago, and the chassis is a scaler in the works. Both done with Alu-Weld rod, a Bernz click start, and Mapp gas. I don't have a MIG welder so I used what was available...

I haven't tried to build a tuber with this yet, but I imagine with some shallow pockets, chamfering, fish mouths, and a game plan, you can get good results.

Just something else to think about.....