# learned something new today



## upTheHill (Feb 6, 2013)

I *REALLY *SU*K doing O2/MAP brazing
I can make big holes in aluminum, instead of getting them to join together.
obviously getting the metal too hot,  just have to keep practicing, and stock up on lots of scrap metal :LOL:


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## November X-ray (Feb 6, 2013)

One trick my Dad showed me many, many years ago was to take a piece of mild steel rod and hammer one end in sort of a spoon shape. Then when trying to gas weld aluminum, you had this rod in the same hand as the filler rod was and every so often you used the spoon rod to scrape the oxidation out of the way. It is crude at best and requires much coordination but it did yield acceptable results for the task at hand back then.


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## upTheHill (Feb 6, 2013)

watched a couple youtube videos, and tried again.
much better results on steel. I'll try the aluminum again over the weekend


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## Ray C (Feb 6, 2013)

Aluminum is a total pain to flame weld or braze because it oxidized in a heartbeat and the skin of it blocks your every move.  Good luck... I gave up and went to TIG -which took every bit of 3 hours of practice before I was adequately sticking aluminum together.

Ray


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