interesting to see

That is pretty interesting, and I envy his ability to cut to a pencil line with a coping saw. It seems like he is lacking some essential tools (most notably a bigger soldering iron) that would make his process much less laborious.
 
I was looking at an ad for a small welding machine about the size of an electric drill. Anybody have any experience with one of these? Does it work on brass?
 
How about telling us little more about it?

Brass is usually soft soldered, hard soldered aka silver soldered, or brazed. Brazing is done with an oxygen-gas torch that heats a brass rod filler metal. Electric Arc welding is used to weld high melting point alloys like the various steel alloys. The arc is created by a high amperage electric current so the “welding machine” is a controllable high amperage power source. There are both AC and DC types. Unlike soldering, welding actually melts some of the material being welded and in some processes the electrode too. Since welding is high amperage, the machine and cables are not small.

There are resistance soldering machines that are sort of like welding machines. These pass a low voltage high amperage current to heat the joint and melt pre placed solder. These will solder brass and some of these are palm sized.

Roger
 
The machine I'm looking at is made by Saker. The ad, which I don't seem to be able to find at the moment, shows a nice welded?? seam. I need to make two 1 #/4" water tanks about 6" long for my Great Republic and I thought this machine could be useful for that. It could be very useful in making brass fittings for sailing ships too. I like working with brass but haven't tried steel or iron yet. Soldering doesn't always hold where maybe this welding thing would do better. I'll try and find the ad and post it here. Pete
 
I looked up the machine. It appears to be an ordinary welding machine using flux coated electrodes. Aka “stick welding” in the trade. The difference is that they have miniaturized the inverter that converts AC power to DC so the entire unit is handheld eliminating bulky power cables electrode clamps, etc. If it actually works, it might be a nice workshop addition. Like most other things, however, stick welding is a skill that must be learned, so not everyone can do it.

I don’t believe that it will work with brass. Stick welding is done with consumable welding rods coated with a granular flux. Heat from the welding arc vaporizes the flux, shielding the molten metal from oxygen in the air. To the best of my knowledge flux coated brass welding rods are not available. Also, with this welding process, heat input is determined by the length of the welding arc. It is also affected by the diameter of the welding rod. Trying to use this on brass would probably result in a melted mess.

These tanks should not be difficult to solder. First of all solder does not work well with butt joints. Lap joints are required to provide enough area for the lower strength solder to form a strong joint. The good news is these would have originally been riveted so lap joints are historically correct. I use a liquid flux. I’ve almost used up a bottle of Bakers Fluid bought a long time ago from Brownells. This stuff is water thin and wicks into the tightest joints. It seems to pull the solder in too. I solder with a simple HOT electric iron. I use a 40 watt iron but you might need a more powerful iron for this job. IMHO, those fancy electronic soldering stations are a waste of money. I clean the metal with ordinary sandpaper and then swab it with acetone. The acid flux that I use also cleans the joint.

I spent my career in the pipe fabrication business. Welding piping for high pressure high temperature service requires flawless weld joints. Most pipe welders will tell you that it is impossible to produce a good weld in a joint with poor fit up. Soldering is no different. Solder will flow into the tightest crevices but will not bridge a gap. Spend time fitting a tight seam. I can spend hours fitting up a joint that can be soldered in seconds.

Roger
 
Wow! That's great info Roger. Thank you for your experience. I kinda thought that brass was too soft but didn't know for sure. I'll score the seams on the brass and lap the ends over and solder. Probably the best since I have very little experience with metal work. Thanks very much for the detailed explanation.
 
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