Question regarding brazing/silver soldering

Hey all,

I recently borrowed my dad's oxy acetylene rig because I want to learn how to braze. Anyway, I was brazing some bed frame today and getting the hang of it. Ultimately I want to braze a SS nipple to my SS pot so i can get rid of my delicate weldless setup. Anyway, after gaining a bit of confidence I started messing around on an old SS pot lid. I successfully brazed some copper pipe to the lid with some decent beads but damn did it blacken up the lid. I am using that Harris stay clean flux (paste) and some oatey safe-flo solder. Is there any tips or tricks to do this a bit cleaner? i was watching the below youtube video and this guy is soldering those rings and hardly making any mess. Any advice or tips is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I'm no solder expert for that kind of application, but from watching the video the majority of the heat he applies is inside the tube, which makes sense in trying to avoid scorching the surrounding metal. When he does heat the outside, it is very direct, high heat quickly around the outside. You should be able to remove most of the scorch marks with a little fine steel wool and/or stainless steel cleaning agent.

I noticed he does heat the inside quite a bit. I will have to try that out. I guess practice makes perfect. Anyone have any idea what kind of flame he is using? Kind of hard to tell on the video but it looks like its carburizing

I have been using Stay Bright #8 Silver Bearing Solder and Stay Clean liquid flux with good results. The Stay Bright has a very high tensile strength and melts at about 450F. I use a standard propane torch - it has more than enough heat. Too much heat and you'll char the flux or eventually damage the stainless. The vid is correct ... EVERYTHING ... must be clean. I also use flux during the flow just as he did when he reapplies. When you get good adhesion, it seems to be plenty strong. I used a 12" wrench with lots of torque to tighten a heating element and the fitting did not budge.

Here are some pics: ... well their local and I can't seem to figure out how to post them

Gremlyn1 said:

I'm no solder expert for that kind of application, but from watching the video the majority of the heat he applies is inside the tube, which makes sense in trying to avoid scorching the surrounding metal. When he does heat the outside, it is very direct, high heat quickly around the outside. You should be able to remove most of the scorch marks with a little fine steel wool and/or stainless steel cleaning agent.

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No steel wool. It will cause your keggle to rust. A good stainless steel cleaner will work.

Sawdustguy said:

No steel wool. It will cause your keggle to rust. A good stainless steel cleaner will work.

Click to expand...

Really, even fine wool? I'm not talking about scrubbing till your scratch the surface.

Yeah, no steel anything. If you rub steel wool on stainless at all, you're embedding it and it will rust. You can use a stainless wirebrush, 3M pad, sandpaper, etc.

Brazing requires a neutral flame. If you have too much acetylene you will be making your SS brittle with extra carbon atoms also the soot is very hard to remove.

Thanks all. On my old SS lid I burned a few small holes and drilled them out to just about the size of some 1/2 copper pipe. I wedged the copper in there and practiced like that. The joints I created were certainly strong as hell, but it made a mess of the stainless. Can anyone recommend a good stainless cleaner. i am sure they sell something out there on the market, but there has got to be some household chemical that will work too.

edit: Is the stay clean paste flux the same as the liquid?

Barkeepers friend

I use this stuff on my alclad SS cookware, it works wonders.