flux question

[J.McDonald Knives]

will flux that you use in plumbing work until i can afford to buy proper flux? i have silver solder but not sure if the flux i have will work. its a water soluble (sp?) flux.

 

[Beile]

Hey Mr. pimp, I just soldered with my flux that I use for pumbing, I believe flux is just an etchant, acid based stuff to clean the metal, I dunno, look it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_(metallurgy)

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

have you done a test on yours tho? im also wondering if the water soluble (sp?) or the c-flux would work better.

 

[Beile]

What kind of test? It's stuck on there great and I banged on it and the epoxy and pins on the handle will hold it on also. I have it all cleaned up and sanded around it and see no gaps or holes in the solder so I'm guessing it's OK. If you do it just let it air cool, if you quench, it might crack or separate. I'm guessing the real stuff might work better, the water soluble seems not to work as well to me, the place I used to work switched and it took some getting used to.

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

ive been doing plumbing since i was 12 and have been soldering since i was 14. i know that if you have a gap bigger than a tight fit and you quench it after soldering you run the risk of it cracking on you. but if its a tight fit like with copper fittings and brass fittings, you dont have to worry about it. we always quenched our solder joints if we needed to handle it. and sometimes quenched them even if we didnt have to handle it. but what we used was a wet rag which basically is the same as dunking it in water. i know about soldering on electronics too. so im not worried about the procedure. im just wondering if the flux would work and which of the plumbing fluxes would work better than the other.

 

[deker]

I'd say it depends on the solder you're using. Fluxes and solders really are pretty matched to each other. If you're using a high silver bearing hard solder, plumbers flux may not do. I'd say to use whatever flux is recommended for your solder.

-d

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

im using silver solder used in plumbing. whish plumbing solder do you think would work better. its been ages since i last soldered with silver solder.

 

[Dan Gray]

im using silver solder used in plumbing. whish plumbing solder do you think would work better. its been ages since i last soldered with silver solder.

I think it's a heat issue with the flux working, be it soft solder ~400 deg or hard up to ~1500
I'm not all that sure , borax for forge welding or the Flux for Brazing , I'd go with what's recommended for what you have for solder to be safe..
or you can do like I do
who doesn't take his own advice some times, and experiment

 

[John H Davis]

like Dan said it's a heat issue, also the reason flux works, from what I've been told in school, is it cleans the metal (call it etching) and then it keeps it from (oxidizing) while you are soldering or welding the metal. The flux controls the atmosphere at the metal joint while you are working it. If you are using a soft silver solder the water base flux should work, it is good to about 750 degrees.

 

[Martin S.]

If you're trying to join steel to steel or brass to steel Jacob then use a high silver content solder like stay-bright 8 with a liquid flux. The last I bought was 3 years ago and it was almost $60 a pound back then so be prepared to shell out some cash. Plumbing flux does not work well with silver solder.

 

[J.McDonald Knives]

thanks guys. for now ill just experiment. after all this is my first time doing a guard. if it works for now i will use it until i get the money for proper solder and flux.