StillSmart

Spirits4BB wrote:Beautiful...........
Is that a copper base on the jar that was the lid?

The Jam Jar is upside down to stop the flies getting in. The jar had something like "Robertson's Jam" moulded into the bottom, I flattened a bit of copper pipe and glued it to the glass to cover the unsightly text.

Nice. Functional Art.

Seagull wrote:So jealous of the skills you guys have in self build

Try it my friend,you may surprise yourself.
Once you start joining pieces of copper, you will discover how easy that is.
You may move on to SS, which is a little harder.

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote:Once you start joining pieces of copper, you will discover how easy that is.
You may move on to SS, which is a little harder.
Robert.

Can stainless be stuck together with a gas torch & silver solder?

Easydrinker wrote:

Try it my friend,you may surprise yourself.
Once you start joining pieces of copper, you will discover how easy that is.
You may move on to SS, which is a little harder.

Robert.

When I can find some time, I may just do that

Spirits4BB wrote:

Easydrinker wrote:Once you start joining pieces of copper, you will discover how easy that is.
You may move on to SS, which is a little harder.
Robert.

Can stainless be stuck together with a gas torch & silver solder?

If you are soldering stainless to stainless, then there is a special soft solder (and flux) that does the job at low temperature. 2207.
http://www.cupalloys.co.uk/soft-solders/index.asp

I tried it with copper to stainless and for me the flux was so aggressive it etched the surface of the copper. For copper to stainless I usually use a higher temp and braze it with this. 455.

http://www.cupalloys.co.uk/low-temp-silver-solder/index.asp

Yes you can silver solder stainless to stainless, bit of a pain using mapp gas but it's very easy to control using oxy/acetylene.
The flux is very expensive, I paid nearly £20 for a tub of easyflo & you can't buy any smaller a pot which is a bit of a pain considering how much you use.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/182044006617 I use this guy a bit, he sends you a little bag of easyflo with each order as well

They were a couple of very interesting links, I may have to give up coming here late at night to find time to play more with metal in daylight hours!

Robert.

Benoit wrote:Yes you can silver solder stainless to stainless, bit of a pain using mapp gas but it's very easy to control using oxy/acetylene.
The flux is very expensive, I paid nearly £20 for a tub of easyflo & you can't buy any smaller a pot which is a bit of a pain considering how much you use.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/182044006617 I use this guy a bit, he sends you a little bag of easyflo with each order as well

Given what he says about the solder and flux etc, I'm wondering how easy it is to silver solder stainless to copper then ? for things like adding flanges to connect a column to a keg etc..........

It's one of the reasons for my procrastination. Got the keg, but need to work out about the soldering etc (can do it but need to understand what extra kit I need for heating as oxy/DA is too expensive, but given these smaller, contract free bottles that are available these days, I'd guess that other mixes will heat enough to do the job).

I'm still mulling over Myles' post from a few years back about actually making the electric elements myself and how it gets in and attached/mounted on the keg - I really don't want to fanny around cutting the top of the keg out, then having to use a bowl lid and all the issues of gaskets and securing the bowl/column arrangement.

All my stainless ferrules were soldered on to copper with silver & mapp gas with a normal torch, once it starts to flow it's just like normal soldering but it's the heat required to get there that can take the time. If its cold & you're outside then it will take a bit more time/heat again. I had to rescue a botched attempt at a TIG weld the other day because the material was too thin & I burned through, my dad just happened to have oxy in the garage so I used it & the control you have from the faster heat up & more precise application was like night & day. It could have been done with mapp but it would have taken longer & been more difficult, that was on a bigger piece though it would have taken no end of heating up.

Ah, ok I'll see about that then. I've found a few places that do the contract and rental free bottles so one of those small kits of bottles, gauges, pipes etc should do the job - plus butane/propane and oxy should get hot enough (I think they do small DA as well if necessary).......

I already learned that TIG is likely too hot.......

I only have a small propane torch that I use for soldering....I'm getting this setup next week ready for the SS ferrules when they arrive from China.

With the correct flux & rod should be an easy job to do.

Icefever wrote:I only have a small propane torch that I use for soldering....I'm getting this setup next week ready for the SS ferrules when they arrive from China.

With the correct flux & rod should be an easy job to do.

Hum? see I tried with something similar Brian, but it wouldn't get quite hot enough. It did sort of start melting the rod but would get it running or even past the "small bogey" stage of melting, hence my keeping my eyes peeled for something affordable from the PoV of mixed gas. The pure O2 with the fuel would seem to do the trick.

Seen a couple of different answers, but I haven't got a link AtM - the eBay link posted (somewhere) for the JM silver rods and easyflo flux looks good as it seems to suggest it should get flowing between mixed metals ok, with the right temps......

Of course, YMMV....... but please post how you get on.....

Easydrinker wrote:Try it my friend, you may surprise yourself.
Once you start joining pieces of copper, you will discover how easy that is..

He's right, give it a go.

Over the years I've done plenty of DIY domestic plumbing, almost entirely in 15mm, and mostly using solder ring connections. This is my first ever attempt at metal bashing and freeform soldering.



So I found some 22mm pipe and polished it up a bit, then I cut off a couple of pieces, snipped them lengthways, opened them out by running an axe head down the crack and hammered them flat.



Found a cone generation utility on i-logic.com/conecalc and marked out on what was the inside of the tube. Turned a taper onto a chunk of an old oak table leg to bash the cones around.

Needs a good bit of cleaning up, but it's watertight and I'm pretty pleased with my efforts.

Just need to bore a hole in another nice piece of oak to stand it in now. That should be the easy bit, except I've got nothing between 20 and 25mm drill bits. Sodding typical!

Hit "submit" instead of "preview". Here are the other pics: