Aluminum & Other
Aluminum brazing rod and lead-free tin-antimony solder - for joining aluminum and for the soft-soldered work that sits outside welding entirely.
Brazing aluminum rather than welding it
Aluminum brazing rod joins the parent metal without melting it. The rod flows at a temperature below the melting point of the aluminum, wets into the joint and solidifies as a bonded filler rather than a fused weld. That is a real advantage on thin wall, on castings and on parts where the distortion from an arc would be worse than the original damage.
It is also the honest answer for work that TIG cannot reach - radiator fins, thin tube, small castings, repairs in the field with no bottle.
Temperature control is the entire skill
The working window on aluminum brazing is narrow, and aluminum gives you almost no colour warning before it collapses. It does not glow red on the way to melting; it goes from solid to a puddle on the floor.
Heat the parent metal, not the rod, and let the joint bring the rod up to flow temperature. If you are melting rod with the flame and dripping it in, the joint is not hot enough and the bond will not hold.
Clean and flux, or nothing wets
Aluminum's oxide layer melts far hotter than the metal beneath it and nothing flows over it. Mechanically clean back to bright metal with a stainless brush kept only for aluminum, flux the joint, and work promptly - the oxide starts reforming immediately.
Wash flux residue off afterwards. Aluminum brazing fluxes are corrosive and residue left on the part attacks it.
95/5 tin-antimony is a different job entirely
This is soft solder, not brazing - it flows at a few hundred degrees and it produces a sealed joint, not a structural one.
The 95/5 tin-antimony alloy is the lead-free standard for potable water lines and refrigeration work, specified because there is no lead to leach. It has a wider plastic range than lead-bearing solder, which means it needs to be left undisturbed as it sets - move the joint during that range and you get a weak, grainy seal.
Do not specify it where the joint carries load. It seals; it does not hold.
Ventilation applies to all of it
Aluminum brazing fluxes give off fluoride fumes and soft soldering gives off flux smoke. Neither belongs in your breathing zone - extraction or a respirator, and not a fan pointed at your face, which simply moves it around the shop.
Free shipping over $175 across Canada. Counter pickup in North York.
