Is this a secret that everyone knew about but me???? In fabricating my 316T intake manifold there are two steel parts that needed to be joined. I tried solder but the heat would just melt it after a while-- then I tried brazing , it held them together but the amount of heat needed could cause distortion, then I tried just steel wire welding which worked very well but there was a lot of clean up to make it look good----- then a light went on in my head- I remembered that Coleman just used a copper ring to fuse the filler plug to the font--- so I stripped some copper wire applied heat and it flowed just right with out distorting the parts from heat-- WOW I never knew you could use copper to "weld.or braze"--
Sounds like a great discovery, so did you wrap it around the joint first? If you could post some pictures it would be appreciated.
I'd believe its more a braze than a weld if you're talking about copper and steel. It could also be some bronze brazing alloys instead of pure copper. Colour-wise, they might appear a lot like copper but they'll melt at a lower temperature. What equipment are you using to weld and braze them? Gas(propane/MAPP), oxy-acetylene or oxy-Lpg, etc, electric?
You can weld copper alright... Still used extensively in refrigeration manufacturing. Oxy/ Acetylene was the medium with a suitable flux and Copper filler wire. Brazing or Braze-welding are more descriptive terms... Brazing is where you flow the filler metal in and underneath the two materials, using capillary action. Braze-welding is where the filler metal is built up to act as an extra structural join, such as a 'Fillet Weld' (if you look up Fillet Weld on Wiki, you'll see what i mean?) Hope this helps....
I used oxy -acytelen with a very low flame-- when both pieces of steel just started to show red I touched them with the copper--- I was just using regular solid copper wire with the insulation stripped off--the copper liquefied and flowed nicely ~~ the first couple I polished up the surfaces-- but today I did a couple with out cleaning and they worked just as well-- maybe tomorrow-- I'll try it using just Mapp gas and see if that will generate enough heat-- If I get caught up on orders I may post a quick video--
I don't think MAPP's going to get the copper hot enough to melt and flow as easily as oxy-acetylene. Perhaps it might not at all unless its large enough to make the steel bright red/orange. Or if the copper wire is small enough. Some Borax flux might help to some extents to retain some heat other than preventing the molten copper from oxidizing.
Have you ever tried Sil-Fos? It flows nice and they sell a powdered flux that really makes a nice joint.
I just googled it-- looks good but here its pretty darn pricey-- 75 bucks for a one pond package of rods-- YIKES~~~!!!
