Welding brass???
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Friend of mine into restoring Triumph TR's has just been onto me, wants to know if you can TIG weld brass, short of having a try at it I've no idea, I'm assuming he must have something wanting repair, anyone know??

yep,

but don't expect fantastic results if its a cast peice.

you'll want it on DC by the way, and dont breathe the fumes in.

Think you can mig or tig weld it, but depending on what type of brass will determine how easy it is I think.

Brazing would be the easiest way I would have thought.

Im ready to be proved wrong though :)

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isnt it much easier to braze it? not like its strong anyway!

Its easier to silver solder if you have access to oxy/acet and a neater job too

Paul

I seriously doubt it!

Cheers chaps, I haven't got any oxy kit so its TIG or nothing, I'll see what it is he has got, interesting though that you say DC Joe, I'd have thought AC from first guess being as its non ferrous.

How big/ small is it? You could send it my way for brazing at a small charge

Depends if it cast or plate/tube.

Silver solder would be my choice for plate or tube.

Might be a bit like aluminium and melt into a big blob before you realised what was happening.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Brazing takes place above 455c where as soldering takes place below 455c. The term brazing encompasses many different filler rods.

Silver solder despite what the name suggests has a working tempreature above 455c therefor is infact 'brazing'

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Tom, ive use tig AC with brass brazing rods, it flows more than stainless but still did the job,

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Silver soldering is deffiantly lower temp than brazing

On 25th Jan, 2009 Sprocket said:
Brazing takes place above 455c where as soldering takes place below 455c. The term brazing encompasses many different filler rods.

Silver solder despite what the name suggests has a working tempreature above 455c therefor is infact 'brazing'

at what temp does siver solder melt?

Fook knows....but I know its alot lower than brazing. I haven't a god damn clue what temp it is! lol

As a guesstimation.......I reckon half way between normal soldering & brazing. Its a sod to to re-heat if you silver solder something in the wrong place!

Edited by Jason G on 28th Jan, 2009.

isnt silver soldering a lower temp than normal soldering?

i know that you cant solder heated rear screen element connectors back onto rear screens as its too hot and could pop the screen but you can silver solder them back on.....

depending on the content of silver. silver solder flows between ~550c and 850c

therefore is classed as brazing, which is what I was saying all along

Silver solder flows just below red heat

Last time I done it, was with burner bars for a gas stove.

no no no no, silver solder is a brazing alloy therefore above 450c

it might be sprocket...all I'm saying is its lower than conventional brazing....which could be 500c for all I know

If metal gets running & sticks together....jobs a good'n' in my book! :)

Edited by Jason G on 27th Jan, 2009.

Brazing is an integral part of my job

I showed the item in question the TIG torch and it turned into a lump of molten bobar on the bench, no suprise there then! He has access to a lathe so is going to buy a lump of brass and make a new one, they were fixings for a period radio!

Yep no surprise. I would expect it to be more difficult to controll the heat with the tig. With oxy acetylene, you can adjust the heat while watching the colour of metal, you can then see the solder flow. Perhaps you could compare tig welding on brass to arc welding on thin sheet steel. While it can be done, its more probelmatic that its worth.

How many people were thinking this part was for some sort of car or engine and its really for an art deco radio

Edited by Sprocket on 28th Jan, 2009.

It is for a car radio, to fit his TR4A!

I wasn't at all suprised it melted, he'd been trying to turn it down to make it fit into his dashboard, and had broken through into a counterbore the other side. I did manage to get a tack of brazing rod from one part to the other before it melted!
He is now on the lookout for a 3/8" x 30TPI tap to make another.

No, LOL!