![]() ![]() If you’re in it for the long term it’s worth considering getting yourself an oxyacetylene setup. If you’ve ever done any welding this is also a very typical torch you’ll use. The more expensive kind is more bulky and involves two tanks of compressed gas: oxygen and acetylene. The cheap kind is a MAPP gas or propane torch that uses a one-time-use 14-ounce tank you can buy at any hardware store, and is also referred to as a turbo torch. In terms of torches, there are two main types: the cheap kind and the more expensive kind. When to Solder Soldering requires a torch and solder. Overall, determining which method to use is a balance between achieving adequate strength within maximum temperature constraints. For example, if you’re joining copper tubing to an AC unit you’ve got to be careful with your temperature so as not to damage any rubber or nylon bushings that touch the lines. In some situations brazing will be too hot for the job and you’ll have to solder. When choosing to solder or braze there are also temperature considerations. You might find some exceptions to this if you’re doing heavy industrial work. In many situations a soldered joint will be strong enough for what you need. A brazed joint will always be sufficiently strong. So if welding is the strongest way to join two metals, why not use it all the time? In HVAC when we’re running copper lines we’re never going to need the strength a weld provides. The cost of materials also increases as you move from soldering to welding, but this is secondary to the minimum strength and temperature requirements for the job at hand. Keep this in mind as you move from soldering to brazing to welding: as the heat required for melting increases the strength of the joint also increases. Joining metals is one of the first topics you’ll cover when developing your hands-on skills in an HVAC technical program: These tasks are fundamental, bread and butter to HVAC work. Brazing and soldering correctly is one of the things that separate the men from the boys and the girls from the women in the HVAC world. Doing it wrong means your joints will fail and so will the system they’re tied to. Doing it right means you’ll have a system that works that stands up to the challenge of pressure and temperature. Over the millennia we’ve perfected the technique to where we know quite a bit about what works best for joining certain types of metals to others, and the advantages and disadvantages each of these methods have.īrazing and soldering are some of the most common things you’ll do in HVAC. When you braze and solder, you’re joining the proud ranks of those who’ve come before you to practice the science and art of combining metal with metal. You could say that brazing and soldering are literally what brought us out of the Stone Age 5,000 years ago when man started to develop metal tools and weapons.
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