Lawrence Brewers Guild

I have an add on piece of copper tubbing zip tied to my immersion chiller that I use for wort recirculation. The zip tie attachment method is not very satisfactory. I was wondering if there is anybody in the LBG that does copper brazing (or whatever the proper term for permanent attachment is) and could help me out??

Thanks

I have a plumber set of copper welding torches which should do the job. Pm me and we can talk about it.

Jason

Me too, this would take less than 5min....

I silver solder all my joints for beer as there is zero chance for lead and no need for flux which I found will hang around for a while and lend a bad taste to beer. I am a hvac tech and have the setup to braze anything needed. Pm me we can get together on this.

jeffvineyard wrote:I silver solder all my joints for beer as there is zero chance for lead and no need for flux which I found will hang around for a while and lend a bad taste to beer. I am a hvac tech and have the setup to braze anything needed. Pm me we can get together on this.

Silver soldering is kinda hard. Glad you know how to do it. I might take some lessons from you.
As far as lead in solder, i don't know if you can even find any with lead anymore. At least not at the hardware stores around here. Its funny tho you have had a funny taste from flux in your beer. Its never been much a problem if you clean well after the job is done. Maybe my pallet has gotten use to fluxy beer!!

Good to see some other solder guys in the club. We should have a sticky thread for those that know how to do stuff so members know where to go for work.

solder, Silfloss, silver solder (does need acid and its a type of flux) never noticed flux beer taste must be a new one! Maybe thats the taste I have been getting from my household water with all the copper piping and solder joins hummm.

Stop by the shed

Dominus Vobiscum

Swagman

What I meant was I made a counterflow chiller and on my first one used regular solder and I got an off taste in the beer because I didn't get all of the flux rinsed out first. And I'm not sure who taught swagman how to braze but silphos and silver solder do not need flux unless you are trying to braze dissimilar metals. Been brazing copper for a living for nine years. I think I know what I'm doing. Don't appreciate the sarcasm

Silver solder + flux for me but I'm no expert and have been known to make an ugly solder (or two) Was worried about off flavors too, especially on the inside of a pipe, so I always wash with soapy hot water, then soak in a CLR solution, and finally PBW soak and then rinse. Maybe I'm paranoid, and maybe the flux isn't necessary, but it's they way I skin a cat if you know what I mean

BTW Martin (Swagman) is a great resource for knowledge and has many talents including home brewing. He's valuable to the forum and I know he didn't mean to ruffle any feathers, that's usually my job

Thanks, everybody, for all the responses. I was going to consider myself lucky to get one. And it appears that we have a very talented and knowledgeable club too. As an FYI the "recirculation tube" will attach to the IC about 2 or 3 inches above the level where it would come in contact with the wort, so I'm not sure that it matters what kind of solder is used. But, it's nice to know that there are club members that know about this stuff. One of you will be hearing from me soon, and since I don't like driving any farther than I have to, you know who you are!

Thanks again.

What i do with new copper to insure all my "construction" debris is gone, is run acetic acid (just regular vinegar) threw/on the copper I am working with (or if possible soak it for a while). Then rinse with water. Cleans all the crud out.

Jason

jeffvineyard wrote:What I meant was I made a counterflow chiller and on my first one used regular solder and I got an off taste in the beer because I didn't get all of the flux rinsed out first. And I'm not sure who taught swagman how to braze but silphos and silver solder do not need flux unless you are trying to braze dissimilar metals. Been brazing copper for a living for nine years. I think I know what I'm doing. Don't appreciate the sarcasm

Dang didn't think I went that far. But since you asked who taught me dang can't remember its been fifty eight odd years.

You stated your into HVAC and I figure you do most of the copper lines with what I call silflos which is a process we call silver brazing. If silver alloy is used, brazing can be referred to as silver brazing. This group of alloys facilitates the joining of copper to copper without flux. These silver alloys consist of many different percentages of silver and other compounds such as copper, zinc and cadmium. Colloquially, the inaccurate terms "silver soldering " or hard soldering are used to distinguish from the process of low temperature soldering that is done with solder having a melting point below 842F around 400F

Silver solders have the excellent to bond with all of the ferrous and nonferrous alloy Including steel nickel copper and brass. At much lower temp than silflos. This is called silver soldering and it needs a flux or most cases an acid.

I used a silver solder called Stay-brite and its acid for silver soldering. In most cases like putting fittings into stainless steel gas tanks I use a high watt iron instead of a torch.

A product for silver brazing on pressure lines called sil-floss and on copper no flux. But it sure and the heck is not silver solder. I use torch set or the turbo torch (one gas) Its a lot higher in temperature.
Dang most I ever want to say about the subject.

God Bless

Swagman