I have a confession

How do you guys rate silver solder? I only ask because I bought some to do a exhaust mainifold job on the lawn mower engine. This is an important piece of kit and goes some way to maintaining a regular sex life. At least, I mow the lawn once every six months which is about what the Boss puts out these days, and if that's coincidence then poor old Wozzaah really is all alone in the universe.
Now I know that I am hanging out in the breeze waiting for an academic to come and tell me that he could Tig that sucker up, but his sex life isn't in the balance here.
Well I only wanted 5 rods and a bit of Easyflow flux. But the website didn't specify you couldn't buy just the rods and sent me 5 packets with a bill that matched my pension payout. It's good for the exhaust work on ultra thin metal and holds up well to all the vibration stresses too. Well, let me tell you what else it's good for....
In the working week, Thursdays are the worst. In terms of worst they are right up there with Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays up to and including 10 minutes before I skive off early. So as you can imagine I came home in a bit of a mood, yelled at the brats to go play in their room and plonked myself into my Lazee Boy recliner executive armchair with a six pack and tv remote. ... And no I wasn't going to go to Tesco's for some nappies. "That's what internet shopping is for you lazy bint!"
Well of course I heard the dishes being slammed in the sink water followed by some frantic stabbing with a steak knife. This is a very sobbering sound, made even more so to watch water leak out from under the sink cupboard in a spray that looked similar to that of the garden sprinkler I bought from the Pakistani hardware shop because it was cheaper than BnQ.

Well if you ever want to make up to the missus and have unfettered access for a night, silver plate her kitchen sink while plugging up those stab wounds to the sink.

Bruce i love your style! you make me laugh!

I agree with the stabbing noise being very sobering tho! Something about metal cutting flesh makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Ace post Bruce

I rate silver solder pretty highly - depending on the job in hand.
Basically anything where you don't want to melt the parent metal, but need a good strong joint. I have used it quite successfully with brass and some of the more exotic steels (I don't have TIG yet, so anything that can't be migged gets brazed or silver soldered).
Also good for dissimilar metals - I recently restored a church key (here)which was made of brass and stainless - try welding that together!
So long as the materials are fairly clean ans free from oils, grease etc and you have the kit to get it all hot enough (I use oxy-acetylene) go for it. The joint should be plenty strong enough for an exhaust on a mower.
Silver plated mower exhaust - cool

I have silver solder and it works well on stuff that is real clean. Nice for repairs you don't want distortion.

I would not use it on an exhaust manifold. I doubt it can handle the heat and oxidation.. I brazed my GPz pipes and they lasted a few years before the braze would burn through. The heat cycles, eventually made the braze brittle and they would crack and burn through. Silver solder would be a bit softer and melts at a lower temp.

Would probably work ok with the once/year use. If you have an arc setup, i would get some Ni rods.

I was brazing the flanges on the pipes, so it was right on the head. Wish i had my MIG then

Bruce, love the SWMBO tales

Thanks Guys.

shenion said:

Bruce, love the SWMBO tales

Click to expand...

ermm yes. thanks. I dont have any reciprocal wisdom to share on the forum other than my failings, so try to pay my way as best I can. My stories are only partly ********. Sadly, most are true