On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 01:34:48 GMT, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

I've subscribed to HSM magazine for years. More often than not, I thumb
through it for 30 minutes and say, "nothing for me this time."

This month's article on working with brass and aluminum sheets is one of
the best I've seen in a long while. I don't do a lot of this and learned
lots of new tricks.

I didn't agree with some of the assertions in that article about
difficulty in soldering/brazing thin aluminum sheetmetal. It's not
quite as easy as soldering brass, but it's not difficult. HVAC
technicians routinely solder or braze aluminum refrigeration tubing.

I've gotten exellent results with two materials: one is Esab #31 rod
with their #31 flux and the other is some rod and flux I got from
http://www.tinmantech.com/html/aluminum_aero_braze.html

The Esab stuff, designed for HVAC work, works best on thinner
materials, as up to .040" or so. It wets and runs like silversolder
does on brass if the work is clean, fluxed, and heated slowly and
evenly under the flame, just as the HSM article suggests as a good
procedure for soldering brass.

The tinman's stuff works better on thicker sheetmetal, like .030 to
???. I'd weld anything over .062 thick with torch or TIG but that's
beyond the scope of the HSM article.

A skilled weldor with good equipment can TIG-weld very thin aluminum.
I'm not highly skilled and I don't have such equipment, but I have no
problem making nice joints in aluminum sheetmetal with a torch and
the materials mentioned above.

I'd recommend a silver-bearing alloy over lead-tin solder for work
with brass or steel. Harris Staybrite works very well, runs below
500F and is much stronger than soft solder. It also works well on
staineless steel.

I'm merely reporting my experience, YMMV.