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Old 09-29-2015, 01:38 AM
bmikkalson bmikkalson is offline
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Default Removing braze flux??

Doing lots of brazing lately, basic rod with flux combined. How on earth do you get the flux off when the job is done? Did some googling and many say soap and water. This is not even touching the flux. I am trying to stay away from abrasive, as I don't want to damage the brass look and shine.
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Old 09-29-2015, 05:08 AM
James Bowler James Bowler is offline
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If you quench it with water right after welding it will flake off . i use a spray bottle
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Old 09-29-2015, 08:25 AM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
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Default brazing flux removal

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Originally Posted by bmikkalson View Post
Doing lots of brazing lately, basic rod with flux combined. How on earth do you get the flux off when the job is done? Did some googling and many say soap and water. This is not even touching the flux. I am trying to stay away from abrasive, as I don't want to damage the brass look and shine.
When the flux sets up /cools it turns into what industry refers to as "glass" and it is hard like glass. Typical removal when cooled is boiling water or steam.

Or a dental pick, rotary tool, chipping ... etc.
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Old 09-29-2015, 09:15 AM
weldtoride weldtoride is offline
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I did a lot of brazing on artwork, and had the same problem, although mine wasn't going to polish, it was patinated.

I always found the flux coated rod to have far too much flux for my use. I preferred using bare rod and fluxing it myself by laying the warm end into a small flux filled angle iron tray I made.

This won't eliminate the glass problem, but you will have considerably less to deal with. In a damp shop, hardened flux can re-hydrate and fall off as powder again, but that takes time. As posted above, hot water was my antidote.

Bare rod is also cheaper than flux coated rod, and a can of flux goes a long way.

An aside, back when I taught O/A processes in high school, my budget couldn't afford fluxed rod, nor could it absorb all the loss from kids constantly knocking over cans of expensive flux, so I started using 20 Mule Team Borax, (the laundry additive, not the soap) and it performed just fine. Kept a can of "real" (dry) flux in the office for critical brazed repairs. I used it straight from the box, but you can read on line how to dehydrate laundry borax to make it more suitable as a flux.
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Last edited by weldtoride; 09-29-2015 at 09:19 AM.
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Old 09-30-2015, 03:55 PM
bmikkalson bmikkalson is offline
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Ok, thanks for the tips.

Will report back with success or fail.
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Old 10-31-2015, 07:56 AM
minus minus is offline
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Soaking with hot water takes it off, assuming your work piece will fit in a tank. Otherwise, heat and a wire wheel will work too. If this is a process you do a lot, you could always gas flux to avoid this issue.
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Old 11-02-2015, 01:19 AM
Michael Moore Michael Moore is offline
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You can have vitreous flux residue with a gas fluxer. You may be able to minimize the flux in the fuel gas down to the bare minimum and reduce the clean up, but there is still flux there which needs to come off.
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