Brazing is a soldering technique at high temperatures and using a silver alloy to join two pieces of metal together. The temperatures can be 480 up to over 800 degrees Celsius.
Normal or ‘soft’ soldering with Tin-Lead or Tin-Silver-Copper alloys uses temperatures well below 480 degrees.
Unlike welding, brazing will not melt the parts, and the joint is very smooth. And unlike welding there is no need to flatten or smooth the joint after brazing. Most classic city or road bicycle steel frames are brazed instead of welded. Cheap modern steel or aluminum frames are mostly welded, and one can recognise this easily by the ugly joints and the absence of the lugs in where the tubes are seated.
The most common technique for brazing is using a gas flame. Somehow I dislike the idea of storing and playing around with big, heavy and slightly dangerous gas bottles. Mostly this reason prevents me to experiment with this technique.
Recently I found another technique: induction brazing! Equipment does seem to exists for induction brazing, but it also seems quite pricy for a hobbyist. Again a blocker to experiment, unless some very nice second hand deal shows up for such a thing.
An example for such a portable induction brazing machine, from the Czech company Dawell.
Note such portable machines use the common 230V two phase mains but up to 16 Amps. Maybe not suited on just any wall outlet! Larger machines require 3 phase 400V power.
Normal or ‘soft’ soldering with Tin-Lead or Tin-Silver-Copper alloys uses temperatures well below 480 degrees.
Unlike welding, brazing will not melt the parts, and the joint is very smooth. And unlike welding there is no need to flatten or smooth the joint after brazing. Most classic city or road bicycle steel frames are brazed instead of welded. Cheap modern steel or aluminum frames are mostly welded, and one can recognise this easily by the ugly joints and the absence of the lugs in where the tubes are seated.
The most common technique for brazing is using a gas flame. Somehow I dislike the idea of storing and playing around with big, heavy and slightly dangerous gas bottles. Mostly this reason prevents me to experiment with this technique.
Recently I found another technique: induction brazing! Equipment does seem to exists for induction brazing, but it also seems quite pricy for a hobbyist. Again a blocker to experiment, unless some very nice second hand deal shows up for such a thing.
An example for such a portable induction brazing machine, from the Czech company Dawell.
Note such portable machines use the common 230V two phase mains but up to 16 Amps. Maybe not suited on just any wall outlet! Larger machines require 3 phase 400V power.
Comments
Post a Comment