Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all, I'm wanting some ideas for a good fluxing brush, I'm sick of burning the shit out of normal ones. What do you use and does it cope well with heat?. I thought a stainless bristled one would be good but cant find any. Thanks for com help.

Cheers

One of the YouTube clips that a soldering thread in here links to (I think it was the one about soldering stainless) has a guy who uses cotton wool wrapped around a bit of bamboo. You could use any old stick of timber that is a small enough size but at least cotton won't melt like many of the cheap brushes. And a bag of home brand cotton wool will last you ages.

Cotton Buds ;-)

A trick from my old mans book.

Take a bit of 1/4" diameter copper tube about 6" long, or whatever length you need.
Take a pure bristle brush, seperate enough bristle to make a bunch about the same size as the inner tube and cut the bunch off a bit longer than the length bristle you want.
Jamb it in the tube, and squeeze the tube in a vice, with vice gips or hammer it.

Ta da! instant brush. You will burn the bristle off if you brush on a real hot spot, but you can make them cheap and toss when stuffed, or cut the end off and re do it.

Make a few in a hit.

Without meaning to sound like a dick Googe, why does your fluxing brush get so much heat?

If a clean job that is fluxed while cold has problem flowing, should only need a quick dab with the flux brush (while hot) to get it to flow again? Having to re-flux (no pun intended) a join more than twice is usually a sign that you are burning the flux that was already there with too much direct heat from the torch...

edit: That's a good brush idea EG :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks db, will have to try that one, sounds interesting : thanks sbb, will give that a go too. Thanks empty, I did that last time, worked ok, wasn't a good enough brush material to begin with though lol, I like the cheap idea though. I like doing it to make a nice clean bead when I'm done Brendan, I'm not the best solderer so it helps.

I only ever flux the joint when cold, been using the same brush for a long time ;-)

Yeah I'd have to say on the build I just finished with about 150 odd solder joins, I probably reapplied flux on 3 of them when they just weren't working or if the flux had burnt...90% prep and 10% soldering :-B

Just stick to the "6P" rule.

"proper preperation prevents piss poor performance"

Try to find a proper hogs hair brush to start with G. You know if you have one, it stinks like cooked pig if you singe it.

I've fried heaps of brushes, but mostly from waving the oxy over it while its sitting on the bench. But I'm guilty of fluxing hot joints :shhh:
If you burn the brush on the job, stop and clean it off. Solder dosn't stick to burnt shit on the job, including brush material.

I've done 6 pee's tonight empty :handgestures-thumbupleft: , I blame the rum :roll: . Thanks about the bacon brush, will have a look for it. You sound like me with regards to burning brushes, mines usually to rushed or to many drinky poo's. I confess, I use scrap copper and don't clean my joints as well as I should, shoot me now.

:violence-uzi: :violence-pistoldouble: BANG!

Nah seriously though, you're only making life harder for yourself...

If you see my bubbler build, the entire thing (minus plumbing parts) is scrap copper pipe. Some of the shit was greeny blue :?

The cleaner your job is the first time you solder, the less heartache with pin holes and joins that don't flow properly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

When I was an apprentice one of my jobs was making soldering brushes. We used horse hair (from the mane) for the bristles and galv flat folded to make a handle. Insert hair, close with a sharp tap from a hammer to capture the hair. Trim with snips or scissors.
Keep the small amount of flux you intend to use in a shallow dish so you don't lose the lot when you knock it over. We made ours from sheet lead for stability.

Keep water close by to rinse your eyes when you rub the sweat off your brow with the brush still in your hand....



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P3T3rPan wrote:When I was an apprentice one of my jobs was making soldering brushes. We used horse hair (from the mane) for the bristles and galv flat folded to make a handle. Insert hair, close with a sharp tap from a hammer to capture the hair. Trim with snips or scissors.
Keep the small amount of flux you intend to use in a shallow dish so you don't lose the lot when you knock it over. We made ours from sheet lead for stability.
Keep water close by to rinse your eyes when you rub the sweat off your brow with the brush still in your hand....

Sounds like a good idea (except the sheet lead bit), now to find me a horse...