Brazing flux supplied with acetylene

[Boucher]

There was a thread on the machine section asking about this. I have had one for years works very good if you use it. The flux is disolved in an acohol base the acetylene is bubled thru it. Storage is the first problem. It is supplied in a case with two one gal metal cans. The can has a metal seal under the cap it doesn't work. The local welding supply had these in stock back in the 80's I bought one and used it a lot for a few years. When I needed some more flux I had to order it and and had a lead time of several weeks. Since then I have had more go bad than I have used. Another guy that was a retired oil field welder doing artistic work copied my unit and he had to do a little tweeking of the mixing valve but his unit worked as good as mine.

[wmgeorge]

There was a thread on the machine section asking about this. I have had one for years works very good if you use it. The flux is disolved in an acohol base the acetylene is bubled thru it. Storage is the first problem. It is supplied in a case with two one gal metal cans. The can has a metal seal under the cap it doesn't work. The local welding supply had these in stock back in the 80's I bought one and used it a lot for a few years. When I needed some more flux I had to order it and and had a lead time of several weeks. Since then I have had more go bad than I have used. Another guy that was a retired oil field welder doing artistic work copied my unit and he had to do a little tweeking of the mixing valve but his unit worked as good as mine.
They use this method to braze copper fittings to tubing on production lines. At least at the Lennox plant in Marshalltown Iowa they do anyway.

[Michael Moore]

I have splitter valves coming off my regulators because I have one torch that stays "clean" and the other for use with the flux tank. I forgot to turn off the valve to the flux tank and after removing the regulators and capping the tanks I came back a week later to find my welding cart covered in "snow" that had come back out of the flux tank. What a mess. I'm not sure if that's wiped out the regulator or not, but I suspect it will prove to be full of the flux crystals.

But if you are going to do much brazing the flux tank is (other than the above) really nice.

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/metalwork/jetflux.jpg

cheers,
Michael

[twopintsplease]

Hi I am the guy looking for a gas fluxing unit, being in OZ it has been made a little harder. I have found a source for the Liquid flux but not a unit, looking at the Jet flux unit is the valve at the top only a bypass or does it control the flow of flux into the gas? What are the dimensions of the unit? Sizes of the tube? How much flux is in the unit? Would it be possible to make a container with a tube going to the bottom for the gas to bubble through? And not bother with the by pass? Any thing critical in its manufacture.

Cheers
Fred

[Michael Moore]

Fred, the valve does actually do some metering. I didn't find that out for years though. :) I thought it was just a shut-off valve. Now I get a lot less flux buildup that has to be cleaned off.

I've heard of people making flux tanks from old fire extinguishers. It should only see the acet line pressure of 2-5psi, which I think is way under what a pressurized extinguisher would normally see.

It really isn't any different from a "hubble bubble" water pipe.

Overall, my Allstate tank is about 16" tall. I suppose it holds .75-1 gallon.

Warning: I have two torches coming off a Y fitting on my regulators with valves on each leg of the Y fitting. One goes to the "clean" steel fusion welding torch and the other to the flux bottle. I recently took the regulators off and forgot to turn off the valve to the flux bottle. I came back a week later and it looked like there was 3" of snow all over the welding cart. The flux will vaporize and come out and then recrystallize. What a mess! I figured that after 25 years of use I might as well just buy a new acet regulator and not try to clean out the old one.

The flux will also eat up the acet lines during normal use so keep spares on hand. They swell up and crack so you'll know when it is time to replace them.

cheers,
Mcihael