How to braze a deflector on a muffler

[Fruecrue]

Lol. I’m a builder. I always heard
Caulk and paint can fix what I ain’t

Do your best and caulk the rest.

 

[rjames]

Do your best and caulk the rest.

"It's good enough for the girls we go out with" is my go-to.

 

[Flying_Dutchman]

Does it matter if I get the 45% rods instead of the wire? Also how would the 5% work compared to the 15%? The only thing I've found locally so far is 5% in 1/16" rods.

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[Mastermind]

For those of you with tig capabilities, you can tig braze stainless with silicon bronze filler....you can also join dissimilar metals with it too. Silver solder sure is handy though!

I'm trying to learn to tig.

 

[Fruecrue]

Does it matter if I get the 45% rods instead of the wire? Also how would the 5% work compared to the 15%? The only thing I've found locally so far is 5% in 1/16" rods.

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There’s more mass in the rod over the wire and can act a bit sticky. Remember not to melt it with the torch. You want contact/ conduction from the base metal to melt the alloy. Once the rod warms up it flows nicely.

I’ve never used 5%.

 

[Fifelaker]

The brazing sure looks much easier, and looks neater. What about the strength compared to welding? Good point Randy about the screens though. I like to have them. Don't ask me why lol.

Strength is a non issue, carbide teeth on saw blades are brazed on as you can't weld carbide.

 

[Flying_Dutchman]

There’s more mass in the rod over the wire and can act a bit sticky. Remember not to melt it with the torch. You want contact/ conduction from the base metal to melt the alloy. Once the rod warms up it flows nicely.

I’ve never used 5%.

Thanks for the advice! I'll order some wire and flux sometime in the next day or two.

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[tek9tim]

I'm stuck with bolt on deflectors for the most part.....gotta have a screen.

But for the guys that are ok without a screen, brazing is so much easier.

I've done a few of these where I make an H shaped hole, drill holes into the tabs that stick out (easier before you hog out the material), weld a deflector on, and screw a screen on from the inside. The deflector pictured has been in service for 11 years, and I actually stick welded it. Scrounging around found some super tiny 7018. Do what you've got to when you're in the middle of nowhere central Idaho and your oxy/acetylene tanks are still over in WA.

Since I'm out west, I cut almost all of my firewood on public land where spark arrestors are required. It's automatic negligence if you start a fire without a spark arrestor, but if you start a fire and you had a spark arrestor you at least get to plead your case.

 

[farminkarman]

RPM builds compression.... errbody knows that. IH

I think that is best answer material right there.

 

[J_M____]

For brazing stainless use Harris stay clean flux. It’s pretty nasty hydrofluoric acid, be very careful but it’s one of the only flux that will etch the stainless well

 

[Cerberus]

Anyone know of a good deal on "kits" for doing this? I'm only looking to do about 3.5" so buying the smallest sized containers of all necessary stuff (except torches, have plenty of butane&propane torches, deflectors etc materials but none of the brazing stuff), if I buy smallest-size I'd be better off just paying someone to weld it, it seems... IE I'd spend an afternoon and well over $50 (at least) to (hopefully) end up with my 3.5" weld/braze and a whole bunch of extra brazing supplies that'd be stored-away

Love the idea and have a muffler I'm doing right now that'd really benefit but once i priced out everything it once again "looks more practical to just post a "$50 to someone who can do a 3" weld for me" advert on facebook" situation (and, if there, I'll just stick w/ the nuts&bolts, they're ugly but I can't justify $50 for aesthetics of my muffler!)

 

[Cerberus]

Dave....have you tried that on a stainless steel muffler.....like an MS261?

Wow that would be HUGE to know, what materials are OK/NOT! I'd be looking to do this on my steel 660 muffler (think it's steel, maybe "pig iron" lol I don't know but it's ferrous/magnetic and heavy!), and on my 2511t stainless muffler I need to affix a "plate" (to block-off a hole entirely) so I expect it'd need to hold stronger in that case IE more pressure on it...though I guess I can just do a ton of overlap, if it is a worthwhile-expense for just 2 deflectors!

 

[Ronie]

Anyone know of a good deal on "kits" for doing this? I'm only looking to do about 3.5" so buying the smallest sized containers of all necessary stuff (except torches, have plenty of butane&propane torches, deflectors etc materials but none of the brazing stuff), if I buy smallest-size I'd be better off just paying someone to weld it, it seems... IE I'd spend an afternoon and well over $50 (at least) to (hopefully) end up with my 3.5" weld/braze and a whole bunch of extra brazing supplies that'd be stored-away

Love the idea and have a muffler I'm doing right now that'd really benefit but once i priced out everything it once again "looks more practical to just post a "$50 to someone who can do a 3" weld for me" advert on facebook" situation (and, if there, I'll just stick w/ the nuts&bolts, they're ugly but I can't justify $50 for aesthetics of my muffler!)

I got my stuff from Amazon, the MAPP gas I got locally.

 

[Ronie]

Wow that would be HUGE to know, what materials are OK/NOT! I'd be looking to do this on my steel 660 muffler (think it's steel, maybe "pig iron" lol I don't know but it's ferrous/magnetic and heavy!), and on my 2511t stainless muffler I need to affix a "plate" (to block-off a hole entirely) so I expect it'd need to hold stronger in that case IE more pressure on it...though I guess I can just do a ton of overlap, if it is a worthwhile-expense for just 2 deflectors!

I used it on a stainless pill grinder handle a few months ago.

 

[huskihl]

I got my stuff from Amazon, the MAP gas I got locally.

View attachment 333965 View attachment 333966

Same thing I use on stainless. Make sure it’s clean by sanding all the surfaces. For carbon steel I use bronze brazing rod because of the cost.

 

[Ronie]

Same thing I use on stainless. Make sure it’s clean by sanding all the surfaces. For carbon steel I use bronze brazing rod because of the cost.

Can you use the bronze brazing rods with MAP, I got rid of my cutting torch and tanks years ago because I never used them and they were just taking up space.

 

[huskihl]

Can you use the bronze brazing rods with MAP, I got rid of my cutting torch and tanks years ago because I never used them and they were just taking up space.

If you use the smaller rods, yes. 1/16”. But it takes quite a while to get it hot enough to melt the bronze, so it may be a better trade off using silver solder vs using up your Mapp gas I guess. With acetylene torches it melts almost instantly

 

[Woodpecker]

Some of the hvac guys are starting to move toward oxy/mapp torches for brazing linesets. Should be able to get a torch for around 75 bucks and of course the mapp and oxy tanks are sold just about everywhere. Oxy/mapp will get you to about 5k degrees. Moar gooder than just Mapp alone.

when I took hvac classes we learned with both a traditional torch and Oxy/mapp. We had to be able to braze a hole closed in a pop can so it was water tight to pass the final exam.

 

[Basher]

I do a good bit of copper plumbing and own several B tanks, they work very well for silver solder.

 

[Bjorn]

Silver brazed muffler pipe.