durafix

[oldskoolron]

has anyone used the durafix welding/brazing rods

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rH681CYDgw

[Dr Stan]

That's amazing.  Wonder how expensive it is.

[Pete O]

Very impressive promotional video. There's a bloke who does the rounds of the farm shows with a similar demo, has been around for at least 10 years but I've never tried it, I tend to be skeptical of something promoted by a spruikier like a sideshow act. Maybe this year I'll but some form him and give it a try.

[pepi]

A better sell demo would be a cross cut of the joints. A shear test done at room temp, those alum parts were to pliable.

[Vinny]

Years ago a friend of mine sold that stuff. Well probably gen I since he said this is gen II. He gave me a tube of rods (probably 10 or so) and a bottle of flux. They weren't made to be used together. If you've ever tried to solder a wire to a battery, like a D cell, you have to get it pretty hot. A drop of that flux, hit it with the iron and add solder and you're done.

As to the rods, I saw him do most of what they showed in the video but the pop can thing he took one step further. Someone challenged him to slice and fix the side of the can. He did it. The stuff he was selling was called Miracle Rod and Miracle Flux. Don't recall what it cost, but I wanna say it was around $15.

A couple of years ago a guy that was renting a room from the neighbor was trying to change his water pump and somehow in the process he nicked and cut open a tube in his aluminum radiator. I handed him a partial stick and told him how to use it. He was, of course, skeptical but he followed my directions anyway and it worked. Needless to say he kept the rest of the stick!

[oldskoolron]

over here in qld they want 22 bucks for 6 rods so when I next get my pension gunna buy some cheaper than buyin a tig lol

[dallen]

the stuffs come a long ways since I first saw it out on the open market. it was originally made for fixing irrigation pipes I believe.

[Dr Stan]

(10-26-2016, 12:38 AM)oldskoolron Wrote: over here in qld they want 22 bucks for 6 rods so when I next get my pension gunna buy some cheaper than buyin a tig lol

Build one using an AC/DC FWD & REV as your power supply.

[Dr Stan]

At some point aluminum rods for arc welding were available.  I tried a few using AC and FWD & REV DC.  No success whatsoever.  Later I was told they worked OK with Oxy/Fuel.  Never attempted the method as I decided just to stick with TIG or MIG wet-up for aluminum.  Anyone out there have any success with Oxy/Fuel aluminum welding?

BTW, checked on the price of Durafix and decided against it as the price is high and I have the Torchmate for my MIG and am in the process of building a TIG using an AC/DC FWD/REV stick welder as the power supply.  Won't be as good as a real TIG with wave frequency, etc adjustments, but will be better for welding thinner aluminum using the MIG.

[Roadracer_Al]

I took a 3 day metal shaping class. Part of the curriculum was oxy-fuel (iirc, hydrogen) aluminum welding. You had to get the material scrupulously clean. You had to use a very tiny torch tip (think jewelry) and you had to dip the rod into the flux each time you took the rod out of the flame. I suppose with some significant time trying, I could get the hang of it.... but I'm a pretty good hand with TIG already, so why? It's said that TIG welds are harder than gas welds, but if I have gas welding capability, I can anneal my TIG welds.