I'm doing a top chop on a turret shaped top, and there are a bunch of odd shaped filler shapes that I harvested from another top. The metal is not as clean or fit up as good as I would like. I was using mild steel filler rod, and it was a bear to get it tied in without warp or burn thru (plus I weld like old women drive) Had a guy reccomend trying some "silicon bronze"---man it slides in like hot ****er ! For thin panel cosmetic stuff, giver er a try ( oops a dangerous spellin' error SILICON is used in weding rod SILICONE is used--well you know)
Silicone Bronze is great for the right job. It has a little give to it so you wont crack welds in areas that flex. We use it to weld floor panels on offroad trucks and some hotrods. You have to get used to it's properties though so practice first. It likes to puddle in one spot and then all of a sudden at the right heat range it spreads like you say "like ****er"
I may be wrong...but I dont think you can paint it can you? I saw a guy tig weld a motorcycle frame then he used silicone bronze (I think) over the welds before he painted it. When the paint dried we brushed the paint of the bronze. It looked really cool. I have used Stainless rod before on mild steel. It seems to be a little "wetter" that mild steel welding rod.
You shouldn't have a problem painting it. Then again we have only powdercoated or left it bare metal.
Silicone Bronze has gotten me out of a bind or two......Its good to have in your ****nal of rod selection....Littleman
Close, It's br*** brazing rods that you can't paint over the silicon bronze takes pain just fine. Eddie
You are talking about the biker build off when Scott from Leroy Thompson's hand painted his frame then wiped off the SB welds. I've considered welding a tank with SB but don't know yet if I can get the penetration I need with it. I'm going to put together some test panels to see what happens. It works great as a filler for metal with imperfections b/c it lays nice and is soft for grinding or sanding.
The stuff i've used is for tig welding. The rods that are for gas welding will pop and give you all kinds of problems with a tig welder.
What thickness silicon bronze rod do you like to use? I would guess a little less amps than with mild steeel rod? Am I thinking right.
I generally use 1/16 rod for all my welding. The only time I've used larger (1/8) was when doing large filler welds on alumium. Same amperage as steel rod, the base material hasn't changed...
So are you guys using SB on **** joints or lap joints? I've brazed lap joints with oxy before, but never seen SB with TIG.
Yeah, he is still alive and kickin. His daughter just got married so he was a busy man. How do you know him? JC
I've been using .062 dia silicon bronze on .040 thk steel. I turned the heat down a little from what I was using with mild steel filler rod. I have been using a TIG machine. Its different to watch, you get the base metal glowing good, slide in some rod. It stands in a puddle and all the crud comes to the top--then---bloop, it ****s into the base metal. You have to keep moving along, or you will end up with a "lake of silicon bronze. The stuff follows heat like flowing lead.
you can also weld it using a carbon gouging rod. the weld is a little porous but is a good weld. we call it carbon arc in the sheet metal world its a inexpensive and fast way to weld up duct work (grease duct) out in the field. and your right its a handy rod to have laying around.
We use SB with a TIG for race car sheet metal work.As stated above, flows nice, turn the heat down a little.Paint is no problem. Was at Troy"s open house a couple of years ago, and thats what he uses for sheet metal. Has a gold color to it.
only drawback, its kind of pricey. i needed some last year, i tried 3 supply houses, they all told me it only comes in 10 lb box and was over 100 bucks. the 3rd place found a half used box for me somewhere. i only had to stick a carb linkage back onto the br*** shaft. it was too small to braze. still not as expensive as the nickel tig rod for c.i.
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