Silver vs Brass
07-31-08, 08:15 PM
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Classic question, it's been covered a few times here but I'll give you the condensed version.
If you're fillet brazing, it's usually brass, very strong and much cheaper than silver.
If you're building a lugged frame, it's silver. Not as strong as brass (still more than strong enough) but easier for most new guys to get to flow through the joint.
You can braze lugs with brass just fine, but it takes a lot of practice.
You can fillet braze with silver, but it takes even more practice.
What are you building?
If you're fillet brazing, it's usually brass, very strong and much cheaper than silver.
If you're building a lugged frame, it's silver. Not as strong as brass (still more than strong enough) but easier for most new guys to get to flow through the joint.
You can braze lugs with brass just fine, but it takes a lot of practice.
You can fillet braze with silver, but it takes even more practice.
What are you building?
07-31-08, 11:12 PM
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I'm build a lugged frame... I'm just going to use silver though because that's all I have training with, I was just curious what everyone else uses and why they tend to use it. Thats the nice thing with having so many builders everyone has a preference 
08-01-08, 04:52 PM
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If the lug fits tight around the lug silver is applicable but for loose joints, brass is better from what i've learned.
One benifit of using silver is that it's easy to clean up the lug shoreline; take a small needle file and use it as a scraper to chisel off any excess silver globs. Much easier than removing excess brass since you will have to actually file instead of scrape. Yea, I know, there shouldn't be excess material on the lug edge...but it happens. I'd rather use too much filler rather than not enough, and sometimes it's hard to judge how much is laying on the edge when the whole mess is slathered in flux.
One benifit of using silver is that it's easy to clean up the lug shoreline; take a small needle file and use it as a scraper to chisel off any excess silver globs. Much easier than removing excess brass since you will have to actually file instead of scrape. Yea, I know, there shouldn't be excess material on the lug edge...but it happens. I'd rather use too much filler rather than not enough, and sometimes it's hard to judge how much is laying on the edge when the whole mess is slathered in flux.
