Soldering Stainless Steel

[KF-Puffin1]

OK.........Ive seen it done by others and i have watched you tube, how too's on it ..........but i just cannot get it to work for me. I CANNOT SOLDER THIS STUFF AT ALL.
someone help me here. im useing silver bearing solder, im useing flux. what more can i need?

[hydrotinkerer]

I silver soldered some ss bolt to my plates one time. I had to practice on a piece of scrap because it took me a couple of times to get the hang of it. I ended up buying pure silver to make them stick together. The pieces have to be super clean. I used a scotch brite disk on my air grinder. The flux I used came with the silver. I got mine from a welding supply. I think they had better quality stuff. But in the end the joint was very fragile and cracked after about a month so I gave up on that approach. Curious what are you trying to solder?

[KF-Puffin1]

im still playing with these wallplates in a clamshell design,and i want to seal the 2 outside plates together(beveled edge to beveled edge) all the way around for some tests i want to do........I'm tired of seeing all these small bubbles just circulating around in my cells and not rising to the top and poping,so... i want to try to create a area for these bubbles to cultivate/acumulate, and only release the larger ones that build up.....so if i build a pipeing system to a accumulator for the bubbles,before even being released from the plates i might be able to increase my instant output while cold.


dont know if that made any since what so ever.......but i cant find my cd for my el cheap-o camara..to show what i meen.....ehh i need a new camara anyways.

say you had some stainless wallplates...and you bolted them together so there sealed.
now your creating bubbles inside of this sealed unit and it has 1 hole for all the bubbles to escape from.
pipe that into another one of those sealed plate units making bubbles also,do that 4 more times(6 total sealed cells)
the last set of sealed plates has a pipe that runs to a couple of sealed plates that does not produce any bubbles, just collects them laying horizontal,then pipe that to another sealed cell that does the same thing .... my hypothosis is that when the bubbles hit that first sealed chamber they will be forced to pop because they are being forced into a air chamber,if not the second air chamber will do the job.
in theory of coarse.

[hydrotinkerer]

That would be expensive to solder that many plates. Have you ruled out gaskets to seal the clam shell part of the plates? I know your probably trying to keep the gap at a certain spot. Have you considered welding them up?

[LTCFISHER]

The secret to SOLDERING SST. is to use SILVER SOLDER FLUX it is a water base flux and without it you can not solder sst.  I have been doing it for over 25 years. Once you have soldered the pieces together you must wipe off the joint with a clean wet rag, this stops oxidation of the sst. You can use 5% to 65% silver the higher the precentage the stronger it is. The benifits of silver solder is that it can expand and contract to tempurature. Think safety you are working with a acid base flux, not good for the face or eyes, don not use your finger to apply it, use a brush.

If you pratice you can weld sst with a high end propane torch. The other trick is to watch the color change in the sst., it will look like red jello as it heats up then apply the silver a little at a time, if heated correctly it will weld just like brazzing.

ltcf

[geezer]

question?? how are you going to solder,weld plates without ruining inselators on center plate?

[Manta]

geezer,

You do it before you assemble them.
Manta

[KF-Puffin1]

question?? how are you going to solder,weld plates without ruining inselators on center plate?

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.............bah humbug


ill have to look into that..........maybe....nope.......huh....... way to bring me down geezer

[hydrotinkerer]

You can always use the shower pan gasket material. I think it measures .040 in thickness. Not sure if that little bit would make much of a difference.

[Bob]

Bolt to it with stainless steel bolts and connectors ...its far easier!
...
Bob......

[KF-Puffin1]

but im trying to seal the actual plates edges without adding any more distance from outer plates to center plate.........now the shower pan gasket might work.....but how does that stuff hold up to extreme heat..ive had alot of different materials fall apart under test conditions @ over 40 amps

lol anyone know of a nonconductive metal?

[hydrotinkerer]

I only know that some guys are using the shower gasket material for spacing on their dry cells. They haven't complaned about them leaking when they are hot so I can only assume. I know the stuff from Lowes is pretty cheap so if you want to try a small piece just to see.

[oldntrd]

I am building a Fisher tube cell and have been conditioning it . I started with sodium hydroxide and was getting so much goo I cleaned it with muratic acid and went with kool aid. I still got goo but not nearly as much . Today I had it running at 6 amps and noticed it was not putting out many bubbles but could not see a reason so I left it for later. Later I checked and it was drawing about 1 amp. All I could think of was that everything was coated so I dumped it and flushed it with acid. No change so I disassembled it.

I had silver soldered the seams of the tubes and the + strap to the outer tube. All the siver solder on all the joints was gone and the strap to the outer tube was no longer connected. It appears all the goo I was getting was from the silver solder being leeched out and into the electrolite.

I know silver solder comes in a wide range of %'s and I have had this so long I do not know what it is so to be safe in the future all my joints will be welded with the same rod as the material used.

[Bob]

I wondered about that...but didn't say anything because I realy don't know for sure...
...
when I made my tube cell I welded it...  and YES i got Tons of Goo from it when I ran it trying to condition it... seams the plate is dirty meterial ! takes a long time to clean itup I guess....
I am thinking that a Acid bath with Muratic acid  ...100% for 10 minutes  should help that a bunch.... but I'm not certain on it... you might give it a try and see if that helps clear up the goo....
and get away from the Sodium Hydroxide and get some Potasium Hydroxide...or Koolaid...
...or vinegar... though Vinegar wasn't strong enough for my tube cell.. only drew 5 amps at 100% soultion ! HAHAHAHAHHAHA
......
Good luck !
 yah ! WELD that Puppy ! don't solder it ! <grin>
...
Bob.......