Silver Soldering a Boiler Core | Model Firetube Boiler Build, Part 8!

This episode on Blondihacks, I'm building the core for my firetube boiler! Exclusive videos, drawings, models & plans available on Patreon!
/ quinndunki
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[@SethKotta]

Pretty sure when you're using it for this type of function it's called a Brazy Susan.

[@robertpearson8798]

Her middle name is Flo.

[@wi11y1960]

Loved the "Adult expletive moment" As my dear 87 year old mother loves to remind me. "No good deed goes unpunished"

[@RonCovell]

Quinn - a testament that persistence and 'staying persnickety' pays big dividends. Congratulations on a job well done!

[@oldie4210]

Glad to see you back in the saddle Quinn. I am very happy to see the new boiler build, but have to confess it is for selfish reasons. I am retired from my previous life and my "new life " of leisure is pursuing the amateur tinkering of building working models. I have learned so much from your publications and wish to thank you.

[@crichtonbruce4329]

Holy (Adult Language) Quinn, you model and steam engine people have the patience of Job, and the skills of Holzapfel! Enormously impressed!

[@ardemus]

This is so much more satisfying than if the last video never existed. You're a good role model for all of us perfectionists trying to be okay with the inevitable learning experiences in life.

[@davidtaylor6124]

Perfectionism is a killer in this hobby. I didn't even know I suffered from it until I read a book called Breaking Badly. It explained a lot and showed why I burn out so quickly trying to do almost anything. It's taken me 10 years to build my loco - it's basically finished aside from testing ,fixing, and painting but building it has been such a stress I'm just sick of it. Every part has to be as good as I can get it, and is still not good enough, and perfectionism has just sucked any joy from it the whole way though.

[@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE]

@@davidtaylor6124 building our steamboat boat we built it knowing there were things that we would have to re-do in the future. Out main goal was just to get it on the water to start enjoying it. We're slowly pecking away at the projects parallel to our enjoying steaming it 500+ miles a year. We had a good friend that took 20 years to build the "perfect" boat. He steamed it three times, and had a crippling stroke.

[@shawnmcauliffe5072]

"I'm sure it will be fine". The start of another awesome video!

[@larss337]

I only recently discovered this channel but I have already watched every single video posted. And now I have withdrawal symptoms.

[@rexmyers991]

Your patience and perseverance is what it took to achieve success. Not my strong suit but, thanks to your lesson today, I resolve to try harder. Can’t wait for your next ‘episode’.

[@arthurspader5423]

Happy seeing the 100k plate in your wall, you deserve 100M subs Quinn, i love your work!

[@wuudturner]

I need to laugh. In my experience, I usually get things right the 3rd or even 4th time through. But by that 4th time around, my stuff is looking darn good from all the experience learned. So you are still ahead of the curve in my eyes. Thanks as always for bringing us along.

[@rhavrane]

Bonjour Quinn, I have never met someone as meticulous as you, and I have seen several individuals or professionals making boilers. If you get into the steam accessory business, I'll be one of your very first customers! Amicalement, Raphaël

[@catalinbadalan4463]

Phew! Faith in humanity restored.

[@johnmcclain3887]

I do enjoy "the adult language breaks", in my own time, we called it "colorful metaphors". You should never bad mouth Mr. Murphy, his laws are absolute! Very nicely done, nice looking outcome.

[@Preso58]

That old Easyflo solder also contained antimony and the biggest danger was boiling the liquid solder due to excessive spot heating. There was a lot of publicity in the UK around home shop boilermakers being found deceased from what appeared to be heart attack but in reality it was poisoning from heavy metal fumes. It seemed as if it was more prevalent in winter which was when small home workshops were closed up against the cold with little ventilation. Long story short, work with plenty of ventilation and don't spot heat the solder. Funny how that one bolt stuck fast. It's like the paint you spill on the floor will defy all means of removing it but the paint you apply under ideal conditions will peel off no trouble at all.

[@So-Flo]

Thankyou for your perserverence and patience, and for learning alllll those things along the way to share with all of us. Only once I'm confident in my ignorance will I actually start my prototypical model boiler build.

[@pesterenan]

This new iron bolt solder is really good, you should use that instead of silver solder. Haha

[@BillySugger1965]

Excellent improvement on the first attempt. Success comes from experience, experience comes from failure. Very well done, and a superbly described process.

[@VinayKumar-cp9oe]

Important knowledge for best tube cutting n design for steam stored yet higher psi label in Boiler locomotive fine with thanks🙏🙏

[@nathansmith1085]

That was a very smart idea to use the bolts as heat sinks to protect the pipes you didn't want to heat. That is something I will use in the future. Thanks!

[@sonovoxx]

Ye gods and little fishes - I didn't know I could hold my breath for almost 20 minutes, but I resisted the urge to skip to the end to see if Quinn was running the bandsaw through it all again! Perfect outcome! Well done! 👏👏👏

[@bonce]

am watching at 4:37 and suddenly worked out what your doing... that is so clever. lightbulb moment made me pause just to say props

[@justinpoirier5285]

I see a super-spiffy 100k subscribers plaque in the background there! Congrats! Your channel has been an inspiration to the rest of us who thought we were misfits because we liked lathes and mills, but *also* like to build computers from scratch, repair old radios and tinker on tractors. Glad to see someone else who "does it all!" Also, it's inspiring to my twin 9yo daughters to see that this isn't just "man" stuff. Keep it up!

[@brianrhubbard]

This " I'm not giving up" video is awesome. Just shows your Core perseverance.

[@robertpearson8798]

She got a bit steamed but didn't give in under pressure.

[@robertpearson8798]

And she did it in a flash.

[@MrTIGERH1752]

Hi, Quinn A coat of graphite, from a pencil or carbon black from a torch will keep silver solder from flowing to where it is not wanted. Carbon round stock can easily, if very messy, can be turned into plugs to prevent silver solder adhesion. Heating the largest mass, to a temperature below the melting point of your solder, then applying localized heat around the tube periphery which will allow complete penetration, and even flow out. A small tip size on an oxy acetylene torch is very useful in directing heat is close proximity to other joints. Never made a boiler, but did very similar construction on a friends senior project, a heat exchanger for a sterling engine. I think all those years silver brazing refrigeration tubing for HVAC work helped perfect my skills. I recently switched to the black flux, especially for copper/brass to steel, and steel to steel joints, and I must say it works much better than my old white fluxing these higher temperature applications. Try the pencil lead trick on some scrap pieces, and see what you think. It might prove useful some day. Love your work, and especially your being open to showing your failures. Most folk don't have guts enough to admit they ever did anything wrong. Because of this lack of admission, there never seems to be any contrition and this results in no learning. Good on you !!! Tim

[@solarguy6043]

Another handy technique if you have to heat part A that is next to part B (which doesn't need or want much heat) is to wrap the vulnerable part in wet cotton string, or wet paper towel or wet toilet paper. Far more effective than just a heat sink because the phase change of the water takes a lot of energy. Same thing with more mundane plumbing problems.

[@erik_dk842]

Ask any A/C guy

[@danmartinrc]

Great job! I know I’m just a random guy from the internet, but I’m proud of you. Most people would have packed it in and moved on to something else, but you persevered.

[@transistor754]

Nice job! Remember Murphy/Sods Law is the patron demigod of model engineering! That bolt getting soldered was just such a touch from Murphy! Things "they" don't put in books but you discover while you're doing it! Held my breath while you fixed it! I hope you don't mind me adding that if you paint things with "Whiteout or Twink" ( the white liquid stuff in a little bottle that you paint over typewriter errors.. yes you can still get it..) it's clay(?) and dries onto the surface while you heat the job, it stops the solder sticking on surfaces you want to keep clean, like when you come to do boiler fittings etc. Cleans off easy with some IPA.. good on you, keep going! As a hobby steam model builder I often make two of every part!

[@bandana_girl6507]

Gotta love when putting the least amount of effort in an attempt to not make the thing happen ends up actually making it happen the best

[@joepeach997]

One of the first times I subscribed because you are the real deal.

[@ronmccabe7164]

I remember seeing my first transfer punch set, thinking "I don't expect to ever need one those". Well they turned out to be the one of the most useful tools I own. Use them for the wrapping of springs and things (chuck them in a 3 jaw chuck, along with wire/solder), wrap them to your hearts desire. Also wrap them with abrasive cloth to sand/ream holes and tubes. A simple spreadsheet calculator will calculate the proper diameter given the ID and cloth thickness. Very seldom use them for transfer punches.

[@Goguleroma]

What i have learnd over time with brazing, is that alluminium is one of the best metals to soak the heat away and it won't solder itself, is actually possible to use alluminium to guide the solder material, is fantastic

[@wrongfullyaccused7139]

Never give up. Never surrender!

[@bernieshort6311]

Looking really good Quinn, She who dares wins Yaaaaaa. What a learning curve. You are an inspiration to anyone who wishes to enter the field of model engineering. Well done you.

[@emilyselwood6456]

Awesome to see all the things you learned from the last go. Given the hours/days you put in last time I'm sure that one bolt was giving you flashbacks.

[@Blondihacks]

I had a few words, that’s for sure

[@jfirebaugh]

You can lightly heat the rings while they are wrapped around the mandrel to relax the springiness.

[@foxwood67]

Even with the small hiccup no doubt it was gonna turn out great. Looks fantastic

[@beeorganic]

Racking my brain of where I've heard this kind of narration style of a video before. I got it- The Red Green Show!

[@Blondihacks]

I’ve also been compared to Bob Ross. I consider both to be compliments. ☺️

[@beeorganic]

@@Blondihacks Blondi Ross without the fro... Quinn Green without the "eh" and Molson/Labatt's. One question- When will the Blondihacks welding touques be available?

[@joeab10]

The idea of adding heat sinks in the form of the screws to the already soldered parts is good, but you could take it to the next level. Keep the already soldered parts submerged in water while you solder the other side. Same for the outside tube, you could fill the inner tubes with water to stop them from desoldering. It will take more heat and more focused to the specific areas, but it will never break the bonds while there is still some water.

[@AMRosa10]

Yay! Core soldering complete! It is really interesting to see your progression of thinking on a project and how you tackle problem solving as it comes up. Thanks for sharing!

[@BetweenTheBorders]

I'm really starting to enjoy the way this is coming together if only because it shows why PEs don't like amateur pressure vessels. For all you've done on this project alone, and done right, you're still having trouble. I can't wait to see one hold up to hydro and end up in service.

[@Belialzero]

Sadly I don't have any machine tools yet but I've been applying your mantra in my current automotive project. Stepping outside of the comfort zone and the realization that, it's fine to fail. It's just metal, if this hole I'm drilling and tapping doesn't work out, I can pull the oil pan and weld a bung on instead. If I ruin the oil pan I can get another and then do it off the car. Failure is healthy, it's how you grow. Thanks for showing the first boiler. You easily could've just not published the video and then subsequently published this one with a much different voice over. Instead you showed folks it's okay to try something. Nothing is truly a failure if you learned something along the way.

[@davidtaylor6124]

It's a lot more entertaining watching someone else recover from their stuff-ups than doing it yourself, for sure! It was edge of the seat stuff watching you drilling and milling that bolt head - it would have been too easy for those soft tubes to let go. Perhaps a pinhole leak can be fixed either by expanding the tube or putting more "gluggy" 15% silver solder in that area. As you say, silver solder has the perverse property of doing pretty well exactly the opposite of what you want a lot of the time. Correction fluid is a great way to stop silver solder. It allows you to make a really neat joint and may have been enough to stop the bolt getting stuck. Amazing difference between the two solders. Glad this one is working for you.

[@royreynolds108]

Silver solder is quite forgiving and readily repaired. A small tip to direct the heat would also be of help. In silver soldering, the alloy will follow the heat. I brazed or silver-soldered copper to copper, copper to steel, and copper to brass for about 14 years. If the parts are clean, copper to copper does not need flux with the usual alloy, but is a good practice for boilers. If you use different alloy percentages for joints and a smaller tip, step construction is very doable and fairly easy. The company I worked for had 2 joints of steel to steel brazed with 50 % silver and our other joints were 15% or 5% silver and the 15 # boxes came on pallets of 10 wide by 13 layers 3 feet long. These joints held 500 psi. I have brazed over 1500 joints in an 8-hour shift with no leaks, consistently.

[@MrJoeGarner]

I would have given up long ago, your dedication to this project is amazing!

[@JDnBeastlet]

Nice work Quinn! Way to persevere and overcome - thanks for bringing us along for the ride!

[@markfletcher6511]

I have een a fan for some time. My heart went out to you when you had to cut your boiler into pieces Ever since then I have been waiting for the resurgence of the indomitable will which will overcome the minor setback and therefore prevail against the previous challenge. Or, to say it another way, good good girl!

[@ianbertenshaw4350]

Glad to see I’m not the only one who manages to solder parts together that weren’t intended to be soldered together - happens to me all the time 😖 One thing I have found with silver soldering is to only apply flux directly to the joint and don’t spread it all over the place as it draws the solder away from the joint . You can load some flux into a small syringe and use it like a mini caulking gun to run a bead of flux around the tube right where the end plate will sit and this will get dragged into the joint when you assemble the boiler for soldering - this does the inside of the joint and you then use either the same syringe or a toothpick to dab a bead of flux around the outer end of the tube. Sit a ring of solder on this flux and heat from below . Must have been disheartening to have to make it all over again - I know that feeling all too well !

[@ronmccabe7164]

EXCELLENT! Idea.

[@johnathonmullis4234]

Great video. Your never quit spirit is a joy to watch. I thought I was the only one tormented with stuff like that.

[@redoorn]

Yea! Quinn for the Win. :-)

[@r1mein54]

I love the way you put up the 'adult language' warnings.

[@GaryT1952]

This was fascinating...I may never silver solder anything, but at least I have a basic knowledge of what is going on. Thanks Quinn

[@bid6413]

Quinn, wow, that turned out to be an amazing and well done boiler core. Congratulations. It’s a “boy-Ler.” About the bolt getting soldered when you didn’t want it to, I’ve never tried this but a friend told that painting around the area to be soldered with Milk of Magnesia will keep the solder from sticking to the area painted with MOM. Oh, he told me to dry the MOM before soldering with a heat gun or lite torch heat. If you do the experiment let me know how it turns out.🎭 you are amazing and inspiring. Cheers, Will

[@MrTIGERH1752]

Another great tip for using Milk of Magnesia. It can be used as a poor man's substitute for anti seize on exhaust bolts, and other fittings subject to high temperature oxidation. Tim

[@dougmaz1]

This little trick works very well. To stop the silver soldier sticking to the parts you don’t want it to stick to put some white blockout the stuff you use to paint over the wrong spelling after a typing error but the silver soldier hates it. I’ve used this trick a fair bit give it a go on a test piece with the bolts you used. I use the Australian stuff it might be the same where you live. Cheers Doug.

[@jeffarmstrong1308]

Listen to him. I've seen Doug build 'I don't know how many" boilers - all of them perfect.

[@rjkee5157]

Thanks for the test pattern. I was able to adjust my Focus Setting; Aspect Ratio; Linearity ; Frequency Response; Shading ; Contrast; and Interlacing while you were practicing your adult language repertoire

[@larrywoolford8978]

You know what I like the most about Blondihacks ? I like the female sensibility she brings to projects , like using a puffer to remove chips , a typical guy (myself included )wouldn’t think twice about grabbing a compressed air hose and blowing chips all over the shop , and making a big mess to clean up later -if at all . Well done ,and thanks for another great project video.

[@Mengmoshu]

Seeing a finished solder joint is always satisfying. Seeing a new attempt at a solder joint you saw fail before is even better. Then multiply that by the number of boiler tubes. Sharing your troubles and failures with this project multiplies the satisfaction of success, or even just good workarounds. I've had a passing thought to how hard it would have been to solve the soldered in bolt problem without a mill. Plus, I've got a lot of respect for your patience turning the bolt into chips without harming the boiler.

[@v8Mercury]

Nice work. I could use some of your determination in my own life. 😀

[@chrisj4570g]

I won’t lie, I had a little stomach flutter when the “ominous foreshadowing” text popped up. 🤮 I’ve really enjoyed this series. I had zero interest in building boiler before, now I have less than zero after watching you make yours. 😬 But, it’s interesting none the less. Keep up the cool videos. 👊

[@stanjankowski3790]

Iam not a machinist but I like how you approach a problem.keep the vids comming

[@sarfaraazalladin3696]

Glad you were able to recover from the bolt mishap!

[@mariellecb1]

Awesome video and result! I think I was holding my breath the whole time...😁

[@jimsvideos7201]

Credit to you for your perseverance; it looks like you're well on your way to making steam and you're well within your right to take some pride in that fact.

[@cana125dh7322]

I'm enjoying the running commentary, humor and mostly the honesty in your misshaps. God Bless.

[@patwicker1358]

Again I applaud you on your perseverance. That is what hobby machining is all about a lot of the time.

[@UpLateGeek]

Well, looks like we both learned something new today. You learned how to silver solder properly, and I learned I can hold my breath for over 10 minutes. Watching that was far more stressful than it should've been, considering I had no skin in the game. But congratulations on a job well done!

[@MikeMcDonoughUS]

Great job sticking with this project.

[@Downtheshed]

Looks like you learnt a lot from the first boiler. The joints look a lot more uniform too. 👍

[@petem6291]

Quinn the first attempt at soldering up the boiler was the learning curve (a painful one ) today you did the job like you had done it a hundred times.... as the kids say" LIKE A BOSS "

[@johnkowalchuk1028]

Model boilers are easy. No pressure. ;)

[@kmet2000]

Technology developed! Sooo happy for you! 👍👍💪👍

[@johnapel2856]

Very spiffily done. Yes, I said spiffily. Good progress! Thanks, and Meow to Sprocket.

[@markhollinshead4153]

Great video, I’ve noticed that your boiler bushes look to be fully threaded. I was told to partially tap them and finish them off after all of the boiler was completed. I really like the fact that you show your mistakes on camera, as it’s mistakes that build our character

[@Blondihacks]

That’s in case you get silver solder in the threads, but I’ve honestly never had a problem with that, and I’ve done quite a lot of boiler bushings.

[@markhollinshead4153]

@@Blondihacks thank you for taking the time to reply.

[@terrytopliss9506]

Looks a whole lot better Quinn.👍👍

[@notamouse5630]

Cadmium is not just bad fumes, the dust is worse and could get tracked into places. Wear a painters suit over the clothing and then dispose of it and shower.

[@mazchen]

That fixture was a game changer. Always awsome seeing you coming up with out of the box ideas!

[@JohnBodoni]

I need that title card for my life.

[@josefkrakel9136]

The Holy Boiler has been soldered! The quest doth endeth! Now, pray that is not leak ...

[@elainezzz]

cant WAIT for the next episode... this was a thrilling one! very tense 😂

[@peevester9987]

Doing it with the pipes visible was already a huge improvement over trying to do it inside the case. Glad it worked out this time!

[@deanehill9730]

Top job. A few tricks learnt there. Thanks for the video.

[@flyingjeep911]

Congratulations that was a wild ride

[@fladder1]

Ooh, thanks for some great tips/advice. And awesome end result! I love how you take us along for the ride and we get to learn together.

[@philipallard8026]

Way to go Quinn. Keep it up.

[@denislamadeleine1181]

Great job Quinn! You will have the boiler finished in no time now.

[@backi480]

What a Journey ! Some Mistakes are really ... but in the End Big Respekt Nice Work as always !!

[@batmanacw]

I am not remotely into real steam engines but I am very much looking forward to seeing this project completed. Great job and thank you for showing success and failures alike.

[@sealpiercing8476]

Sufficiently harsh language can remove oxides from surfaces and prevent solder from flowing anywhere unintended. It is known.

[@tomthumb3085]

Brilliant recover Quinn. I think you earned that final fitting clearance.

[@pseudoengineere2469]

Wow, quite the recovery! I would still be sadly sitting in a chair watching the shadows crawl across the floor…

[@dans_Learning_Curve]

Yeah, that bolt getting soldered in without flux totally surprised me too! Interesting test. Take a bolt and some copper, without flux, and try soldering them. I'd be interested in the outcome! Thanks for the efforts you put in to make these videos!

[@patrickosullivan4354]

Solder doesn't flow on dirt. Only on clean fluxed metal. I've used a whiteout pen to draw reservoirs around the metal where I don't want solder to flow, and I've used whiteout from it's jar to insulate already soldered elements. It's a titanium based paint, so it can take the Heat, but it turns to a cement in the pickle. So you need to clean it before you pickle the copper

[@SpruceSculptures]

Use your lathe to wrap wire around. When you go to solder the core to the casing, figure out a way to heat sink ALL those tubes because the heat for the case to the tube ends will probably loosen all the joints unless they don't get hot. Caveat is the outer part needs to get hot. How do I know this? I learned it the hard way. I found I had to solder ALL of one end at a time, but did not try heat sinks.

[@Oldtanktapper]

Enjoyed watching the learning process here! I’m a jewellery maker and silver soldering is something I do on just about everything I make. The scale is a bit different but all the same principles apply. Joins to be clean and tight, heat all pieces evenly, solder flows towards the heat etc. I’ve always used plain old borax as a flux, just mixed with water, and whilst jewellers do use multiple temperature range solders I generally use ‘hard’ grade and rely on torch control to avoid melting previous joins, some pieces can have dozens of joins in close proximity. One trick we use for removing steel (typically broken drill tips) from silver or gold is to dissolve it out with pickle, I use ph down pool acid. Might take a while with something that big but it’s more about getting enough of it dissolved to loosen the offending part than actually dissolving the whole thing.

[@Clackvalve2]

I Love your honesty.

[@Dlgeis]

Amazing how much you taught me. Thank You

[@bradthayer6782]

Great job. Minor suggestion, to keep something from being soldered, cover it in yellow ochre.

[@anthonykuncas]

I am so excited this project is still going strong! Good on you for, stepping back, thinking about everything you learned and powering through!

[@aaronharrison3801]

Superb Quine hope the next step goes as well as this one

[@jeffwallace2201]

Hooray for you!

[@jamesfraser7483]

Silly tip, Tomato Ketchup does exactly the same as the pickle bath! Try soaking a penny in ketchup and you'll be stunned.