How to Solder Sheet Aluminum

in this video i want to show you a particular technique for soldering aluminum of all things aluminum's traditionally a hard thing to join not that easy to weld but you can't there is a low temperature process that does quite a good job and it even works on very thin aluminum too so i've got this pop can i put a hole in the bottom i'm going to solder that shot very particular kind of rod this is the stuff here it's meant for soldering aluminum and zinc i don't think you have much call for soldering zinc but aluminum yes and it's a soldering process which is different than a welding process soldering involves melting a material the solder in this case it's a rod and heating the parent metal which in this case is the can so that the pores in the metal open up and this this liquid solder can kind of invade the pores and and and grab the metal right on a poor level uh for that to happen the solder has to melt at a lower temperature than in this case the aluminum now i'm going to give you a little demonstration of how this stuff works but before i do i need to tell you about the product it comes in this container here it's it's called blue demon for some reason i don't what demons have to do with soldering and metal work i really have no idea but but there's the stuff the rods that are used with a torch the main thing to understand is that the aluminum you're soldering and the rods need to be completely clean the oxidization for aluminum it's kind of invisible it's clear at least as long as it doesn't get too thick so you need to be freshly cleaned both the material and the rod that's being used and then all that remains is to use the correct amount of heat and you should get great results so i'm using a map gas torch here the propane torch works just as well pretty much the same not too hot of a flame this is particularly thin stuff just a little bit thicker than aluminum foil really so the danger is that i might burn through i hope i don't i don't do that but the metal does need to be hot enough to actually melt the rod yeah you'll never have to work with material this thin but the fact that we can succeed with something this thin just shows how easy it is with thicker stuff so here's a can i did before it's it's cool and you can see it's quite surprising especially considering how thin it is you know pop cans are just a little bit heavier than aluminum foil off the roll so the fact that we didn't burn through and that it it produced a firm and hard result is a great thing you're not going to use rods like this every day but it sure does pay off to have a bundle sitting around because you know you break something you whip it out you get it fixed and actually the results of this is harder and stronger than the parent aluminum underneath now you're probably not in the habit of soldering aluminum pop cans for fun that's why i want to show you an actual application for this stuff more than six months ago i was using this ladder had a problem i broke this brace and it actually damaged the metal in the ladder as well so i bought a new brace this is the replacement but i needed a strong hole for this to mount normally this is bolted together like this just like you see over here but i've taken it off so you can see it this is the kind of repair that was very easy to do with those specialty soldering sticks it took just a few minutes cleaned it with a buffing pad heated it put the rod on it that's what happened it's a great repair it's even stronger than it was before and you know that package that small package of rods is already more than paid for itself just by repairing this ladder it's a great ladder i would have had to throw it out if it wasn't if i wasn't able to repair that so that's the kind of things you can do with this product

Channel: Bailey Line Road

Views: 47,209

Keywords: how to solder aluminum, how to solder aluminum wire, how to solder aluminum to copper, how to solder aluminum radiator, how to solder aluminum tubing, how to solder aluminum to steel, how to solder aluminum wire to copper wire, how to solder aluminum jewelry, how to solder aluminum wires together, how to solder aluminum to brass, how to solder sheet aluminum

Id: p8766EWEd6k

Length: 4min 37sec (277 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2022