In the past I have TIG welded brass using DC and silicon bronze filler
wire. Really crappy stuff to weld. A while back, before I got my new
welder, I had to TIG weld some manganese bronze which is about 30%
zinc and really crappy stuff to weld. To weld it I had to use AC and
aluminum bronze filler wire. So yesterday I thought I would give my
new square wave welder a shot welding brass and manganese bronze. I
used silicon bronze filler, AC at 150 Hz. and 90% penetration
balance. For both alloys the welds were better than the previous
methods used. I tried again DC and the welding sucked. I tried 140 and
130 Hz. frequency AC and the welding didn't go as well as using 150
Hz. I also tried different amounts of AC balance and the 90% worked
best. I am really sold on square wave AC for some types of welding.
When I get some more aluminum bronze filler wire I'll try welding the
manganese bronze again to see if it will work better that silicon
bronze filler.
Eric

On Thu, 27 Oct 2016 12:31:53 -0700
wrote:

In the past I have TIG welded brass using DC and silicon bronze filler
wire. Really crappy stuff to weld. A while back, before I got my new
welder, I had to TIG weld some manganese bronze which is about 30%
zinc and really crappy stuff to weld. To weld it I had to use AC and
aluminum bronze filler wire. So yesterday I thought I would give my
new square wave welder a shot welding brass and manganese bronze. I
used silicon bronze filler, AC at 150 Hz. and 90% penetration
balance. For both alloys the welds were better than the previous
methods used. I tried again DC and the welding sucked. I tried 140 and
130 Hz. frequency AC and the welding didn't go as well as using 150
Hz. I also tried different amounts of AC balance and the 90% worked
best. I am really sold on square wave AC for some types of welding.
When I get some more aluminum bronze filler wire I'll try welding the
manganese bronze again to see if it will work better that silicon
bronze filler.
Eric

Jody made a video last week on TIG brazing that showed how cleaning
action helped. You could see it in the arc shots. Pretty cool stuff.
Nice to hear it worked well for you too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-Cq5eQmt0

and you really should listen to the podcast Jody, Jonathan and Roy are
making he

http://wttpodcast.libsyn.com/

They are discussing really cool TIG stuff here and there...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

Eric,

Years ago I worked in a sheetmetal shop, at one point we were doing
sheetmetal for a place that made high end consumer gas stoves.
They decided to make some with a brass front panel, we had to TIG the
corners. No attempt was made to select a proper filler rod, boss had us
use standard brazing rod. Soon after getting a puddle, the zinc would
start to fume out vigorously. Frankly I don't recall if I used AC or DC,
but fairly sure it was AC. We had the Syncrowave 350, I ended up using
the pulse feature. High heat just long enough to get a puddle and add
some rod, then back off to let it cool. Still got some zinc fuming out,
but it worked pretty darn good. Miller about that time did an article on
the shop and I got an honorable mention for that.

If you have the pulse feature, give it a try.

Regards,

Jon

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On Fri, 28 Oct 2016 16:42:39 +1100, Jon Anderson
wrote:

Eric,

Years ago I worked in a sheetmetal shop, at one point we were doing
sheetmetal for a place that made high end consumer gas stoves.
They decided to make some with a brass front panel, we had to TIG the
corners. No attempt was made to select a proper filler rod, boss had us
use standard brazing rod. Soon after getting a puddle, the zinc would
start to fume out vigorously. Frankly I don't recall if I used AC or DC,
but fairly sure it was AC. We had the Syncrowave 350, I ended up using
the pulse feature. High heat just long enough to get a puddle and add
some rod, then back off to let it cool. Still got some zinc fuming out,
but it worked pretty darn good. Miller about that time did an article on
the shop and I got an honorable mention for that.

If you have the pulse feature, give it a try.

Regards,

Jon

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Greetings Jon,
I did try the pulse feature a little on AC. It seemed to help some. I
have almost zero experience with using the pulse on either AC or DC.
Maybe 5 minutes total. So I will practice to get some more pulse time
under my belt on easy to weld stuff and try again welding high zinc
alloys. I can see how pulsing would work.
Thanks,
Eric

fired this volley in
news
I did try the pulse feature a little on AC. It seemed to help some. I


Hmmm... I have a Syncrowave 300. I guess I'll have to try that! It never
occurred to me. I just torch-braze.

Lloyd

wrote:

fired this volley in
news
I did try the pulse feature a little on AC. It seemed to help some. I


Hmmm... I have a Syncrowave 300. I guess I'll have to try that! It never
occurred to me. I just torch-braze.
I've done several small pieces of copper bar. That seemed almost more
tricky than aluminum, the whole thing wanted to melt at the same time. But,
I did get it welded. I might imagine brass is somewhat similar.

Jon

On 30/10/2016 1:39 PM, Jon Elson wrote:

I've done several small pieces of copper bar. That seemed almost more
tricky than aluminum, the whole thing wanted to melt at the same time. But,
I did get it welded. I might imagine brass is somewhat similar.

I've done some copper TIG welding. Found the best method was to put in
way more heat that you'd think proper. Have to put heat in faster than
than the copper can transfer it. I was welding up a copper range hood,
nothing critical.

Jon

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On Sat, 29 Oct 2016 21:39:09 -0500, Jon Elson
wrote:

wrote:

fired this volley in
news
I did try the pulse feature a little on AC. It seemed to help some. I


Hmmm... I have a Syncrowave 300. I guess I'll have to try that! It never
occurred to me. I just torch-braze.
I've done several small pieces of copper bar. That seemed almost more
tricky than aluminum, the whole thing wanted to melt at the same time. But,
I did get it welded. I might imagine brass is somewhat similar.

Jon
Copper is easier in one respect in that it doesn't boil away. It's
harder in another respect in that it takes way more heat. When I TIG
welded large sections of copper I placed the copper bar on fire brick
and built a heat dam around the bar with more fire brick. Then after
heating with a rosebud covered most of it with even more fire brick,
leaving only the area to be welded exposed. This is the only way I
could weld the 1 inch thick bar with a 300 amp machine.
Eric

fired this volley in
:

This is the only way I
could weld the 1 inch thick bar with a 300 amp machine.


'Makes sense. The only copper I'd want to TIG is about 1/2" thick by 2"
wide (and long). It'd take a huge amount of heat.

Lloyd