Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??
Heat needed
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raynerd:
Just curious...where is Borax being used?? Is that all the flux is????? Surely not, I have about 20kg of this stuff for making PVA "slime" at work...and I just spent £15 on 250g of easyflo!!!  :doh:  I presume there must be a little more to it?
Fergus OMore:
Initially, I am not a chemist. Nor am I an expert in the composition of fluxes but know sufficiently to say that silver soldering stainless steel normally seeks a different flux.

That being said, I would say that normal borax would be quite suitable for brass, steel etc.

Might I then suggest that you get some of your borax, mix it into a thick paste with a drop of washing up liquid and 'have a dummy run' ?

Again, if you have sufficient heat, you can use borax to flux for brazing spelters which is cheaper than silver soldering.

After I'd penned these comments, I checked with one of these wonderful old trilogies of  books 'Engineering Workshop Practice'and found the above correct. Again, I had words with my wife( well?) and she is a retired orthodontic consultant-- and she used borax on stainless wire and clips.

Shooting off at a sort of tangent( as I tend) the flux in oxy acetylene welding for steel is the carbon content in the acetylene which conforms to carbon dioxide in Mig/Mag welding.Yeah, adding  argon helps a smoother flow- blah, blah.

Coming back to silver soldering/brazing, you can get a lot of heat from a cheap arc welder( on sale at Aldi now) if you use a pair of carbon rods in an arc. Don't forget the Number 13 shield if that is your thing.

Cheers
stirling lad:
Steves, I use one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Propane-Brass-Hot-Soldering-Blow-Torch-Heats-Melts-New-/350230328645?pt=UK_Crafts_JewelleryMaking_GL&hash=item518b5ab545
as it works with any the proper plumbers 16/oz gas bottles or even the fatboy bottles and you can get them from toolstation for a tenner with free delivery they even do mapp gas for brazing at the same price and its even hotter... it does'nt fit the cheaper refills like gosysyems ect...

...Mike...
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