1st day I tried Flux with Alum .... didnt you see the big ass picture ? on page 1
2nd day tried hobart rods that supposed to have flux in it ( the weld actually looked nice ) and it adhered to the header nicely , which made me very surprised it kept leaking
It would have like 2 tiny ass spots where micro bubbles come thru EVERY DAM TIME
So I would heat it back up , sweep off the alum , hit with stainless brush , and start over
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I have a different opinion.
Force is pressure times area. So a micro-leak has almost no outward force. I would think that wildly wire brushing the entire area clean and bright and then putting a layer of pretty much any epoxy over the area would work to prevent further leaking.
PHM
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Originally Posted by icemeister
I doubt the epoxy is going to work now that there are no microchannels left to plug.
PHM
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When faced with the choice between changing one's mind, and proving that there is no need to do so, most tend to get busy on the proof.
Im with PHM, it should work fine. The header is cast like in finish, and the ports are not smooth, so there should be ample surface area and roughness to promote a good bond.
And the area of the ports are tiny, maybe
.025 diameter
So if I did the math right, thats like .25 lbs of force at 500 psi.
Ive tried it a few times, and I have luck about 50 percent of the time. I feel like when it failed its always heat related, and I got the aluminum too hot, or maybe I needed to spend some more time cleaning. Ive only used that York kit in all my tries though, Im sure there is something better out there. I suppose if they were getting a new coil anyways I would try the epoxy.
Was it flux specifically for aluminum? It's a specific thing, was there a color on the Hobart rods?
Could be it's just doomed in this case but I just have a hard time believing it is all, I've had a lot guys come up to me asking me why they can't TIG aluminum worth a damn and it's ALWAYS something simple, too much stickout, too little gas, wrong settings, I've welded some of the nastiest aluminum and it ain't always easy but it's doable.
Brazing is a different beast, it's true. Are you using Mapp still or did you switch to oxy acetylene?
Brazing is a different beast, it's true. Are you using Mapp still or did you switch to oxy acetylene?
Are you even reading the posts ? I told Poodle I would try mapp , oxy , propane , and I even bought a butane torch , but that wouldnt get it hot enough , Ive literally tried almost everything in town
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Well; how about another approach then?
What capacity is the unit in question? If five tons or less - just pipe in a residential condensing unit and run the power and compressor contactor coil wires over to the condensing unit. I have done that a number of times.
Also: you can always pipe in a "dry cooler" type of condenser-only unit. I've done that for badly damaged condenser coils on RTU's.
PHM
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When faced with the choice between changing one's mind, and proving that there is no need to do so, most tend to get busy on the proof.
cleaned up channel by breaking off the old section ..... sliced thru horizontal with knife , then took needle nose and bent back n fourth until it snapped
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Originally Posted by icemeister
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