Soldering Stainless steel

[Rickochet]

Thanks for all of the suggestions, pointers & tips throughout this thread!! I have soldered in some fittings on my brew kettle and it looks great!

 

[jsguitar]

Hey guys, how important is it to use stay-brite 8 vs just stay-brite solder? I ordered some stay-brite on eBay without realizing the difference. I think I read a post or two that said it worked well. I did get the stay clean liquid flux.

 

[P-J]

Hey guys, how important is it to use stay-brite 8 vs just stay-brite solder? I ordered some stay-brite on eBay without realizing the difference. I think I read a post or two that said it worked well. I did get the stay clean liquid flux.

No problem at all. The Stay-Brite 8 just has a a greater liquid temperature range. Both of them can and will perform well and do the job.

P-J

 

[jsguitar]

No problem at all. The Stay-Brite 8 just has a greater liquid temperature range. Both of them can and will perform well and do the job.

P-J

Phew, I'm relieved. Thanks P-J!

Thanks to this thread and some other related ones I've got a dimple ready for an element coupling and I've decided to convert all my weldless to soldered.

I'm looking forward to it!

 

[ScubaSteve]

This thread has to be one of the most valuable on the forum. If you can learn to solder your own fittings, you can pretty much make your own custom system at the cost of the fittings. Too bad it won't work for vessels under pressure, etc. but then again, I wouldn't trust my own skills doing something like that anyway

 

[latencymachine]

I've never been happy with my aeration stone with its barb attached to a hose. I already have a nice SS racking cane and plenty of left over Stay Brite / Stay Clean, so I figured I'd try sticking some copper tubing on to the stone. The tubing ID fit right over the SS barb and to my good fortune the OD perfectly fit inside the ID in the stone.

I actually used a Harbor Freight soldering gun and not a torch on this one. I read in this forum (I think) of someone getting a gun to work. I was surprised it worked so well. I cleaned it up with some 600 grit sand paper and it turned out looking pretty good.

Now I can easily connect this thing using a push-connect fitting that I already had to my long SS racking cane and aerate away! Looking forward to using it next brew day. Check it out:

 

[jsguitar]

I got to practice for my first time on this today with a stainless washer and brass fitting. I discovered that a loop of 1/8" solder is probably a bit much, as did another member here. The joint was not super tight and the solder ran through it in one spot pretty bad but otherwise I'm surprised to find that it wasn't all that difficult after following in everyone's footsteps. Thanks for the great thread.

 

[jsguitar]

Ok, I ran into a problem trying to get my coupling into my dimple for my element. I used the 1-1/4" hole I had, a 1x1-1/4" welding reducer and started with a 1" coupling I got on Amazon. I didn't check the sizes and the coupling is way too small for the hole I made. I then bought a coupler from McMaster-Carr and it's too big. Lesson learned and $'s spent.

I tried pulling it through and it bent a strong bracket I was using for a washer on the receiving end. It didn't go in at all and I was worried to try anymore. So, what are my best options?

 

[slakwhere]

Can you make the dimple a little larger with your dimple tool? It looks REALLY close

 

[jsguitar]

Can you make the dimple a little larger with your dimple tool? It looks REALLY close

No, I pulled it all the way through. I hate to buy anything else, but I guess if I bought a larger reducer I could open it just a tad more. Darn!

 

[slakwhere]

Grinder to the edge of the coupling to get enough of a taper to pull it through?

 

[jsguitar]

Grinder to the edge of the coupling to get enough of a taper to pull it through?

Thanks. I may try doing that with my dremel. Maybe that'll be enough to get it started.

 

[LiquidFlame]

I just finished reading this entire thread, and my eyes are burning.

First let me say thanks to all the people that posted great instructions and pictures of the whole process. I now feel very confident in trying this myself and can't wait to do it. However, I still have some questions and need some clarification.

1. Through all the reading, I saw that people were using different diameters of the Harris Stay-Brite 8. The two popular ones I saw were 1/8 and 1/16. Is there a common consensus on which one to use?

2. Planning on making the keg tool from nostalgia instructions, and from what I have read, I should really go with the 9/16" bolt, but I can not for the life of me find a 9/16" bolt fully threaded. Where are people finding these bolts, or does it really even matter if it is fully threaded?

3. For my temperature probes and heat elements, I'll be using 1/4" and 1" welding spuds from Amazon and BrewHardware, but I'm not really sure how to silver solder these. Is it just the same process as the couplers? I've read that you don't need to dimple your holes for the welding spuds, so how do you make the welding spud stay in place while you solder it? Also Bobby mentions that you need to make a hole size of 1-9/16" for the 1" spud, but doesn't say what size hole you need to make for the 1/4" spud. Does any one know?

 

[latencymachine]

The spuds are super easy. No dimpling is needed. Drilling the hole was more of a pain for me than the soldering. I've had more trouble installing weldless kits.

To prepare for soldering, simply wind the Stay Brite around the boss of the spud overlapping on each turn, like a clock spring. Wind all the way to the edge of the flange. You basically want solder fully covering the back face of the spud where it contacts the outer tank wall.

Liberally apply the flux on all surfaces you want the solder to stick to. (This stuff is pretty strong. Wear proper PPE. You may notice it bubbling/fizzing.)

With the hole in the vessel facing up, rest the spud in the hole, with the solder sandwiched in between. Gravity is all you need... nothing else is needed to keep it in place.

Light your torch and start heating. You mostly want to heat from the top, and mostly on the spud... but really just keep the torch moving. Don't overthink it. The flux will boil and turn black and then magically the solder will melt and the spud will sink down nicely on to the vessel. Don't over do it. Once it sweats all around you are pretty much done.

After it cools down you will be ecstatic once you see how nice the bead fillet is on the inside.

1. You'll be good with the regular Stay Brite. The flux+solder kit is more than enough for your homebrew projects. I'm pretty sure it's 1/16.

2. I had the same issue with the bolt. I wish I ordered it from McMaster when I ordered the tool parts. I figured I'd go to HD and get one. FAIL. That and my issue with too large & too small couplers is why I abandoned the dimpling method at this time and went with spuds.

3. Not sure on the 1/4" spud but you are pretty much in drill bit range on that, so I'd just get the spud in hand and select the smallest bit that exceeds the OD of the boss.

 

[lschiavo]

The spuds are super easy. No dimpling is needed. Drilling the hole was more of a pain for me than the soldering. I've had more trouble installing weldless kits.

To prepare for soldering, simply wind the Stay Brite around the boss of the spud overlapping on each turn, like a clock spring. Wind all the way to the edge of the flange. You basically want solder fully covering the back face of the spud where it contacts the outer tank wall.

Liberally apply the flux on all surfaces you want the solder to stick to. (This stuff is pretty strong. Wear proper PPE. You may notice it bubbling/fizzing.)

With the hole in the vessel facing up, rest the spud in the hole, with the solder sandwiched in between. Gravity is all you need... nothing else is needed to keep it in place.

Light your torch and start heating. You mostly want to heat from the top, and mostly on the spud... but really just keep the torch moving. Don't overthink it. The flux will boil and turn black and then magically the solder will melt and the spud will sink down nicely on to the vessel. Don't over do it. Once it sweats all around you are pretty much done.

After it cools down you will be ecstatic once you see how nice the bead fillet is on the inside.

1. You'll be good with the regular Stay Brite. The flux+solder kit is more than enough for your homebrew projects. I'm pretty sure it's 1/16.

2. I had the same issue with the bolt. I wish I ordered it from McMaster when I ordered the tool parts. I figured I'd go to HD and get one. FAIL. That and my issue with too large & too small couplers is why I abandoned the dimpling method at this time and went with spuds.

3. Not sure on the 1/4" spud but you are pretty much in drill bit range on that, so I'd just get the spud in hand and select the smallest bit that exceeds the OD of the boss.

Such a happy story AND all true.

 

[starman]

2. Planning on making the keg tool from nostalgia instructions, and from what I have read, I should really go with the 9/16" bolt, but I can not for the life of me find a 9/16" bolt fully threaded. Where are people finding these bolts, or does it really even matter if it is fully thread

I use threaded rod that is continuously threaded, just pick up an extra pair of nuts and a washer for the 'bolt' end.

ACE had 12" lengths for $3-6. I'm not sure if HD has short lengths or only 4'&8' you'd need to cut down.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Just my opinion guys, but the spuds from brewhardware.com seem like a great solution. Sure dimpling also works really well, but for someone looking to start fittings on a brew rig, the spuds seem great!

On further thought, perhaps the price of spuds vs couplings make dimpling cost effective if you are doing multiple fittings?

 

[adivito]

Spuds are great, their downside is that they are single sided vs. a fitting can be put on each side of the coupling.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Spuds are great, their downside is that they are single sided vs. a fitting can be put on each side of the coupling.

Wow your quick, I just went to edit my post to regarding the single sidedness of spuds...great realtime info here at HBT....cheers!

 

[allclene]

Don't know how well the threaded rod will work. I have already ruined two bolts doing this there is a lot of tension on them when dempling. I couldn't find the all threaded bolts either so what i did was buy a short and a longer one so I will always have threads to do the job. I use the short one to demple and the longer one to press the fitting into the demple.

 

[Huaco]

I picked up a few different lengths of grade 8 bolt to do mine. Yeah, there is some tension, but not a crazy amount. Have you greased the threads? That would go a LONG way in helping not ruin the bolts. Or... go with the highest grade SS bolt you can find and make sure to lube the threads.

Machine bolts, by industry standard, have thread lengths that are something like 2.5 x diameter

 

[NewBrewB]

Make sure to use the bolt poking out through the hole and tighten the nut...if you tighten the bolt, you will strip the threads.

 

[allclene]

Well didn't lube the threads that probably would of helped alot. but now I'm done putting fittings on keggles so if I do do this again I'll remember that one.

 

[starman]

I respectfully disagree that threaded rod won't work well - As long as the diameter is the same, there is no practical difference in how much tension a bolt can take versus threaded rod. I'd also stick to regular steel over stainless because its a little more forgiving and won't come in contact with the kettle wall.

 

[allclene]

I had to go to a hardened bolt to keep from locking the nut onto the bolt due to heat build up when tightening. That's all I am saying. maybe Huaco's idea of lubricating the threads will keep that issue down and threaded rod will work. Good luck with that. I have done over 12 different fittings for the new rig I am building and they seem to have been breaking every 5th time or so of coarse I did not lube the threads.

 

[AllanMar]

I used threaded rod (although it's 5/8") with no problems. There is no perceivable heat build up of the rod that I can tell, and it goes through with very little effort at all. I had my tool machined so perhaps its the continuous slope that makes it easier to go through.

What size hole are you drilling/cutting?

 

[allclene]

That's a good idea to machine the tool. I like that.

 

[jsguitar]

So I finally soldered a half coupling in ........backwards.

I was fiddling with it trying to get it to go in there straight and forgot about the orientation.

So, how to get it out? Heat and tap or something similar?

On the bright side, the fit and solder look good.

 

[slakwhere]

i mark all my half couplings on the end with a sharpee. black side out, always. so i can't eff that up.

as for getting it out, you'll have to do it HOT and use the tool or a hammer to bang it back out. maybe hit it hard with the torch with the jig already in it, and then tighten as it's hot? in electronics solder, they have a desoldering braid, you heat the solder and the braid and it wicks the solder out. something like that may also work?

 

[jsguitar]

Thanks for the ideas slakwhere, I'm going to ponder which way to go with this.