Welding brass with a TIG

[Sodo]

I have silver solder, but not a lot of it. Not sure if I can find the flux. Prob would want a nice tight fit to braze it. I was hoping someone would say "tigging brass is easy and fun". But I can braze or silversolder it, that would look right.

Wow that copper stuff is expensive. Saw a nice 1 1/8" Y fitting for $68. And most of the gutter fittings are 4" diameter and hundreds of dollars, like $300-500. My sink drain is either 1 1/4 or 1 1/2" currently going round&round whether to spend 2x $5 at Lowes or splurge $33 at onlinemetals.

 

[k0ua]

Sodo, do you have some scrap brass you can try TIGing various fitups and just see how well you do with it?

 

[Sodo]

I do have some brass scraps, but no "silicon bronze rod". Is this the right stuff? >>> Blue Demon ERCuSi-A X 1/16" X 36" X 1# Tube TIG Rod (on Amazon)
Do you use 100% Argon?

 

[k0ua]

I do have some brass scraps, but no "silicon bronze rod". Is this the right stuff? >>> Blue Demon ERCuSi-A X 1/16" X 36" X 1# Tube TIG Rod (on Amazon)
Do you use 100% Argon?

I reckon it would work but I haven't used any. The copper TIG welding I have done I used just plain copper were for filler and yes 100% argon.

 

[Shield Arc]

and yes 100% argon.

If your welder doesn't have enough power, then a helium / argon mix will help that.

 

[Sodo]

Brass sink drains in 5 counties are trembling at the mere thought of my welder's power. .......maybe all I need is a BIGGER tungsten.... :thumbsup: OK here we go! Blue Demon 1/4-Inch Tungsten Electrode.

In the meantime I'll try grinding tungsten with the flapper disc that worked before (its in a ziploc baggie as the LWS fella suggested to me). My TIG kit came with 1/16" and 3/32" tungstens. What are the guidelines for using 1/16" vs 3/32"?

 

[Shield Arc]

My TIG kit came with 1/16" and 3/32" tungstens. What are the guidelines for using 1/16" vs 3/32"?

It's all about amperage.

This book would be a huge help to you!

 

[yomax4]

If you have a Tig unit with Pulse, You can set the frequency at 1 pulse per second. That will give you all kinds of time to do a good job with out a meltdown. Practice will show you. Otherwise all of the other responses were good. Easy fix with oxy fuel and braze rod. Harris#5 as posted above will do it too. Also some of the low temp silver bearing solders out there will go liquid at 430 degrees. You can even do a second pass because the re melt is about 100 degrees higher. In the end the most simple way would be to braze it. You can blob it on and move it around pretty good if you are a torchman.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Or you could use a copper downspout Y.

https://www.google.com/search?q=brass+drain+y&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtisrozsHKAhVC42MKHWIbDs8QsAQIOw&biw=1465&bih=715#tbm=isch&q=copper+downspout+y


Or a tubing fitting

https://www.u2plumbing.com/plumbing/copper-wyes.html

Bruce

Copper can be very easily plated with zinc to create an outer layer of brass. My kid did it for a science fair experiment, I bought all of the chemicals on Amazon. Instructions are here: Turn Copper Pennies Into Silver and Gold Pennies

 

[bamboozled]

I use a dedicated 4.5 inch diamond blade on a dedicated angle grinder to sharpen my tungstens. Set the tungsten on the guard and roll it with my fingers so it hits the grinding wheel straight on. So far, so good.