Silver soldering?

[RonA]

I have only ever done this with Oxy/Acetylene but no longer have access to the gear. Will a mapp gas torch get hot enough to silver solder?
RonA

 

[Seadog]

Yes, I've done it, but it depends on the mass you're trying to heat.

 

[Pete.]

I have too but you might need to get some refractory around the part to get it hot enough, depending on what type of torch you have.

 

[Jetex]

Yes, silver soldering is very doable with just Propane or butane as depending on the type of silver solder, its melting point is usually between 650 and 800 degrees C. If you want to solder a large mass then it will require a big burner to heat up the base metal to that temperature but smaller stuff is quite easily done with a plumbers blowlamp.

 

[RonA]

Thanks for that, looks like Ill need some refractory as well as the torch.
RonA

 

[optima21]

if its something small and you're using easyflo (approx melting range between 600 and 650C) you may not need the refractory bricks. the size of the torch required will depend on what you're trying to silver solder. I've used burners to silver solder that use from 20 grams per hour to 2kg of gas per hour of gas (propane in my case)

 

[brightspark]

Thanks for that, looks like Ill need some refractory as well as the torch.
RonA

refractory is called grey soft thermalite blocks broken up and packed round your job nick one of a site it will save u a quid or ask b and q if they have a bust one u can have for nothing

 

[RonA]

refractory is called grey soft thermalite blocks broken up and packed round your job nick one of a site it will save u a quid or ask b and q if they have a bust one u can have for nothing

Unfortunately being retired might have to go the B&Q route, during my 44 years in a steelworks it was laying about all over.
RonA

 

[puffernutter]

What size are you soldering? I have repaired copper boilers (for 7.25" gauge locomotives in the past) and that's required a huge propane burner providing background heat and I used an oxy-propane to do the actual silver soldering. Cleanliness and flux is the key. Don't overheat it - that is just as bad. You can also get silver solder at different melting points.

PN

 

[brightspark]

What size are you soldering? I have repaired copper boilers (for 7.25" gauge locomotives in the past) and that's required a huge propane burner providing background heat and I used an oxy-propane to do the actual silver soldering. Cleanliness and flux is the key. Don't overheat it - that is just as bad. You can also get silver solder at different melting points.

PN

and different grades of purity