Gauge plate. Not so good for welding.

benmychree said:
Another approach would be to use regular carbon steel plate, weld it up and stress relieve it and finish machine the result; due to welding distortion, you'd have to do that anyway to achieve any significant accuracy.
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John,
How would you go about "stress relief" without a heat treating oven?
 
Thanks all, some really interesting experiences shared in this thread.

I had a go a TIG brazing. All I could do was explode the rod into a flare or melt the workpiece. Watched a few youtubes to see where I was going wrong. None were any help until the very end of a This Old Tony vid on tig brazing where he mentions right at the end that you need special rods made for if that don't have zinc in them, with a passing comment about putting a film over everything. Tig brazing rods ordered!

I don't have an oxy fuel setup, just mapp and propane, so can't get concentrated heat in to braze with them. HHO interests me, I have to admit...
 
My rids arrived, so I had a go. Really liking TIG brazing! I don't have a lot of TIG hood time in general, but I can run a bead. Dialed up 80A DCEN and got busy. This is my first run:


IMG_20200619_201347.jpg

That'll do, Donkey. That'll do. I'll improve with practice.
 
Lo-Fi said:
My rids arrived, so I had a go. Really liking TIG brazing! I don't have a lot of TIG hood time in general, but I can run a bead. Dialed up 80A DCEN and got busy. This is my first run:


View attachment 328187

That'll do, Donkey. That'll do. I'll improve with practice.
Click to expand...


Looks great!

What kind of filler rod did you use on this?
 
Just silicon bronze :) You've got to get the zinc free type made for TIG brazing. If you try with the ordinary ones meant for gas heating, the zinc in them explodes and coats everything near when it touches the arc!
 
Lo-Fi , glad to hear you had sucess! Silicon bronze with TIG has been my go to for things like this for several years. You will find it very useful for dissimilar metals and small cast iron repair.
 
I see that you are already on your way to solving this problem with TIG brazing. I just wanted to take this opportunity to tell everybody how much I love my oxyacetylene setup.

Brazing is very low stress because you never have to worry about blowing holes in your base material.

Gas welding on thin steel is also more relaxing because the process moves more slowly than TIG. I find it to be like TIG in slow motion.

I also like history so much, and time spent gas welding is experiencing what things would have been like 100 years ago.

Sometimes you absolutely need the rosebud, not to mention torch cutting.

Finally, if you’re ever away from a power supply or in the middle of a blackout, you can still weld.
 
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I'm enjoying brazing much more than I enjoy welding with TIG, that's for sure!

I'd love an oxy-fuel setup, but cost and bottle storage are an issue here. Use it all the time at the railway, its absolutely vital.
 
I am a person who grinds most of my welds. If it is thin steel material, I use brazing to fill the low spots that remain after grinding (and then file that down flush!).

The powder coater likes this because then they have the option of chemical stripping.

If it is thick steel, it is really fast & easy to fill these low spots with MIG.
 
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