I thought so, but didn’t dear to ask. Didn’t know how far back in line your connection was/is. World is a small village with the internet.
Bottles are really cheap, specialy the small ones. I changed all mine so no every month payment. I will ask a neighbour. He started with a flux machine and changed to mig. Used to borrow my small spare bottle (so I don’t get stuck in the weekend), but brought it back and bought one at Cranenbroek. Must be cheap to change a free bottle. ANyway, if you are a good welder, flux won’t be a problem.
Plans for my kayak project have slightly changed. So I’ll try to put a 5 hp air cooled Yamaha outboard engine inside this kayak. (planned on a B&S lawnmower engine with a lower unit of a 3.5 hp yamaha outboard engine. But then the RPM’s don’t line up, and no reverse)
Second project is well… Got the fiberglass hull of a rubber boat. Glue was deteriorated everywhere, so I just cut the rubber off. Now I need to make it float again. And if that works, I should have a tiny fast-ish boat. (got an 9.9 Johnson outboard engine, and a 15 hp carb)
I might put those projects in off-topic, once I work on them again.
I am not a good welder. I had no experience. I asked questions from 83 year old retired man. He is often confused. He doesn’t know about MIG or flux core. He showed me how to gas weld with oxy-acetylene and almost any kind of steel wire. So I stopped asking questions and just listened. Then I started to learn and understand.
But with dirty wire I was not making progress. Now that I have good wire I am getting a little better each time.
Rindert
About 54 years since I first struck an arc. Welded stick, TIG, MIG but in all that time I have never brazed a single thing. I should try it at least once before I’m dead.
Tom, do you have an oxy-acetylene torch setup? I brazed before I welded. Don’t get me wrong, I can’ t really do either!! The temptation when brazing is to get things too hot, and start to melt the steel, and makes a mess. It’s all about cleaning the metal, good flux and heat control. Try it by all means!! The problem I have with that kind of brazing, or gas welding, is that you can’t really do it without heating up a much larger area than you would like. Electric arc is quickly and extremely hot in a very small area.
I do Mike. I don’t use it much anymore because I do everything with cut off wheels now but I have multiple cutting torches and even a break down set with brazing heads. Just never tried it out. I will one of these days just to say I did.
Brazing is the only way to go when you have to work on cast iron parts. I have tried those special rods for arc welding cast iron. The concentration of heat right at the weld always causes the casting/weld joint to fracture. Even when going through the pre and post heating process. You have to ‘’‘V’’ the joint or crack because the braze will not penetrate the cast iron, but it will give good adheation to the sides of the ‘‘V’’. TomC
I started gas welding in 1962. it is excellent practice because you can move the puddle as fast or slow as you want. You get good practice at bonding without adding material. I stated out using coat hanger, OF COURSE. My first arc “welder” was a 1 gallon glass jar with 2 electrodes and, salt water. It is called a capacitor welder. Then, Got an old service transformer and wired it up for welding with 120 vac. I used that for years. I adjusted the amperage by shortening of lengthening the power cord.
In '84, I graduated to MIG at work. I’m now using a 250 amp miller, 100% duty cycle.
I recently bid on a mixed pallet of welding supplies. I paid $320 and got 900 lbs of wire and rod, mostly in unopened boxes and cans. Some of the rolls of SS fluxcore sell for as much as $800 each.
I also got lots of sealed cans of SS rod.
I still do some gas brazing. It is very useful at times. I just rebuilt the bucket on my excavator. I prefer to not weld plate over 1 inch thick.
Ha! Ha! Amusing to me is how many very good welder-men I’ve met who could not braze.
And I mean, literally could not even good solder copper water piping. Pressure leaks and joints pops.
Welding: William said it; “Watch/control your puddle melt.”
Brazing/soldering you get your pieces to be joined up to joining metals’ melting point. REMOVED the heat source and contact melt flow in your joining metal in. Amazing you see it actually capillary suck in.
I bought a 300# cast steel large frame arbor press that originated out of the Port of Seattle. At one point in it’s life it had been bed broken in half. V-ground. Jig fixed and gap brazed back together. The top of the V-gap is 1/2"(13mm) of brass filler.
I’ve brazed engine exhaust similar. And had to in my auto electric business years, had to braze repair hundreds of rare obsolete broken off inertia drive “Bendix spring” cast iron starter nose cones and broken off mounting ears. Once the surfaces are brass absorbed “tinned” you then puddle the brass stick (re-fluxed, re-fluxed) in onto itself more as a barely melted welding filler.
You gotsta’ be very, very good. Obviously that press was used for decades more repaired that way. I had no fears, buying. and using it for three decades more.
I can braze and solder, excellent. Weld, only fair.
My Grandfather; Jack Unruh could do both excellent.
S.U.
I watched the video of Ben Peterson TIG welding. I guessed he’s like a Jedi welder and just uses the force. I’m a pretty decent welder but unfortunately I have to look at what I’m doing.
I typically use ebay. I just bought 2 - 2 lb rolls of Hobart .030 flux core for $30. delivered. I can buy larger quantities for less money. Flux core should not be stored for very long as moisture will penetrate the seam in the wire and damage the flux. So I buy smaller spools and store them in zip-lock plastic bags.
