Now you can weld it your self

[HandymanHerb]

[tuned]

As Ace Ventura would put it: "Ree-hee-healllly"!!!!

I wonder if this would be strong enough for railing work? Cutting in custom side doors that won't take any wave bash, but will get leaned on by the occasional ummm...

As fate would have it, I have a BUNCH of square tube that is almost ready to be joined at the hip, the head, the toe and everything in between. I had the only quality welder guy in the area lined up (at a medium hefty price) but now he is not returning my calls. Don't know what his problem is, but I already have a torch. Hmmmm

[HandymanHerb]

If I could have found them in town I would have had it done, I need to buy a regulator for my B- set of Oxi, from what video's I seen of it, it joins it quicker and just as strong without changing the temper of the aluminum and the class 5 stuff will even shine up.

I liked how you could do a dirty weld and it would clean it up while your welding it, I been hearing about it for a while, might have to give er a try

[Heatman]

Not sure that I would trust this. He called it brazing but he was actually melting the rod rather than heating the aluminum to melt the rod.Don't think that will produce a strong bond. As cool as that flame was I'm sure MAAP gas would work.

[HandymanHerb]

Watch this one and tell me what you think



Super Alloy 5 is not only easy to use, it's very strong. John (from John Barrett Works) filmed this video of Mike brazing two aluminum plates together with Super Alloy 5 rod and flux, and a propane tank.

Aluminum repair is explained, step by step. Rods and flux available at MuggyWeld.com

I ordered a promo kit they had going with 10 extra rods, so it was 50 3/32 rods for 99 bucks, w/two jars of flux, 111.00 with shipping, I need to do some welding on my racing trailer I use for work and then polish it up, then everyone will be wanting to buy it again, not that I would sell it, unless it was a stupid high price I was offered for it.

[blackberg]

I used the harbor freight brand one for testing, wanted to see how it would be for rail.

well, to make it work good, the edges need to be beveled, clean, and HIGH heat.

I made a pan as test, heated it with an aspahlt propane torch, then hit with mapp and was able to get make the pan watertight easily. I tired it for rail, and was able to achieve a very strong bond. Hit it with a sledge hammer and still would not break off, the tube it self bent. Problem was that it was going to be lots of work for all the rail, and feared that heating one side would melt it off the other.

Ended up talking to one of my uncle's tenants and he welded the rail up for $300, wasn't pretty but it works. I went over the welds and cleaned them up. I recreated the back section of rail, maybe 9ft on each side and the stern, almost 24' total, it was alot.


-bb

[cleatus]

I saw this stuff at a home show, the demo guy was filling in dime sized holes in a soda can (without melting the can), then he would beat on the weld with a ball peen hammer without breaking it.

[HandymanHerb]

The harbor freight ones are a higher melt temp 730 vs 600 degrees

[lakerunner]

The sticks I have use mapp gas

[Mrtoler]

I just used the harbor freight sticks today, I needed to plug a few small pin holes and a few leaky rivets in my 18' flat bottom... IMO they work pretty good time will tell how they hold up!

[tuned]

I did a lot of reading on this stuff on several welding forums in order to get an unbiased opinion. The general feeling is that these guys really liked it. Several stated that although they had the ability to Mig/Tig, they found themselves going to the Muggy more and more often because of its ease of use, little or no pre-cleaning, no heat marks or deformation and final shine.

I then called Muggy and consulted with a rep. He said that it had been used in a number of railing jobs with good results. I finally talked to my welder and he is out of town on a job, so I also ordered the $100 promo offer and am going to giv'er.
Initial game plan is to bevel the joints slightly, then preheat with propane in order to save a few bucks before switching to Mapp for final braze. Not sure if I need oxygen as well, but I have a little Bernzomatic Mapp/Oxy torch that will work well if I need that much heat. The rep said that should be more than enough.

It'll take about a week to get started on some practice pieces before going for the big job. I'll report my findings back here. Thanks Herb!

[oldmn19]

I've used this product with success, I repaired my daughter's barbecue grill's aluminum lid when it was blow over and broke the lid into 3 pieces. It lasted 3 more years through many many heating and cooling cycles. she replaced it when the burners, stainless steel, burned through. Flux isn't used with it but you do need to use the stainless steel brush in the kit. The flux in the other kit looks great but the price if awful high!

http://durafix.com/

[HandymanHerb]

Wasn't that much cheaper, I got 50 rods for 111. w/shipping, your rod that you might get only 44 rods is 105. w/ shipping, and you rods have to be hotter, 730 vs 600.

I like the way you can use them to weld about anything together, SS and Copper, now I wonder what I could use SS and Copper both on, still thinking about it.

If it works as good as they say, it will save a lot of money for the people who gets cracks in their toons near the brackets or just building something new for the boat, if I found them earlier, I would have put my railings together.

I had to settle for my Buddie the master welder to do it today, but I still had to wait to get it done as he is busy as hell , he does the high dollar welding for Universal and they own a lot of parks, I know he was out in Vegas for a long time, they have some big project going on now as he had to work Sunday and they have to do it when the parks are closed, so it's night work too.

But I hope this product works out great for all of us, I'm glad now I had to wait for welding to be done and went searching for how to do it yourself.

[VaGent]

I would be very interested in knowing how it works out too Herb. I've done a lot of "soldering" over the years doing refrigeration work which involved all copper tubing/pipe. I've often wondered about these kinds of products as I've seen them demonstrated around county/state fairs but never actually tried them. I have MAPP gas & "B" tanks that would be nice to use if this product actually works as advertized. I can see LOTS of things I could do with it. Keep us posted as to how it works out.

[Mrtoler]

I have a nice sized crack in my tube by the tube brackets. I've considered fixing it with my rods but haven't tackled it yet....I don't see why it wouldn't work though it's very strong!