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W e lding: The DIY Guide > MIG > Alu and C ast > MIG Brazing

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MIG Brazing
MIG Tutorial
Techniques and Tips
Aluminium and Cast
Iron
Setting up for Alu
welding
Welding Aluminium
MIG Brazing
Cast iron welding
MIG Welders

MIG brazing is a new technology. It's major application is in the repair of modern boron
steel automotive panels. Boron steels are high strength steels, and much of that
strength is gained through heat treatment. The heat treatment is lost when the metal
is heated through welding.
But running MIG brazing wire through an ordinary MIG would also generate too much
heat and lose the heat treatment. Body repair shops need to invest in expensive
synergic MIG welders with special brazing programs. This page does not cover these
welders or modern bodyshop techniques.

Hobby MIG Brazing

I have an application in mind for MIG brazing - I reckon it could be a good way to repair
an iron casting. This page covers some initial experimentation with MIG braze on mild
steel sheet just to find out how to use it. Pure argon gas is required for shielding.

Shielding Gas

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Shielding Gas

A MIG Brazed joint

Practical MIG Welding

Welding Different
Steels
Weld Testing
Useful Info

Silicon-bronze brazing wire feels a lot like

mild steel wire to use, though because
braze melts at a lower temperature than
mild steel it can be applied at much lower
power settings.
For brazing a butt joint (as in the
photograph) the two sheets of steel should
be spaced apart by about the same
thickness as the steel. For an overlap joint
the two sheets should be spaced apart by
at least 1mm. The steel sheets aren't
melted during brazing, so there has to be a
gap for the filler material.

The MIG Brazing Technique

The technique for mig brazing is to weld in
a straight line, moving the torch forward.
The forward angle of the torch pre-heats
the metal about to be brazed.
During brazing there is a bright blue
shimmering light traveling on the surface of
the metal ahead of the weld. This is an
effect of the arc which apparently does
the same job as the flux in gas brazing.
I'm brazing 1.2mm steel, so my welder is
set at the minimum power setting (less
than for normal mild steel welding), but the
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wire speed is roughly double that which I'd

use when welding.

Braze Penetration
I found I needed to space two sheets of
1.2mm steel apart by somewhere between
0.5mm and 1mm for the braze to flow all
the way between the two sheets of metal.
The gap is important. While ordinary
welding will penetrate to the back of the
weld through melting through the two
sheets of steel, brazing doesn't melt the
parent metal, so it needs a gap to get to
the rear of the joint.

So How Strong is MIG Brazing?

It certainly took a lot of effort to bend it
backwards and forwards in the vice. After
bending it backwards and forwards a few
times I thought I'd film the fatigue test. It
took a further 22 cycles to break the
brazed joint, and even then it was the
steel that broke not the joint.
I was very impressed. Here's the video of
the fatigue test for those with a high
boredom threshold.

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Results of the Fatigue Test

When the joint finally broke it was the steel
rather than the braze that had failed.
Suggests the brazed joint is at least as
strong as the parent metal. That really
impressed me, as I've read that brazed
joints aren't as strong as welded joints.
Kind of gets irrelevant when the brazed
joint is stronger then the metal you are
welding.

Distortion with Brazing

It is still possible to distort panels when
brazing as the photograph shows.
Distortion can be minimised by brazing in
short runs, and allowing the metal to cool
between runs. But using an ordinary MIG
there doesn't seem to be any advantage
over normal welding.

Advantages of brazing might include welding of dissimilar metals. Because the two
sheets of metal aren't melted together it doesn't really matter if they are the same
type of metal so long as the melting point is above about 950C. Most metals will melt
at a higher temperature than bronze. It's even possible to braze galvanised steel
without removing the galvanising (although this still needs to be done outdoors or with
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an extractor).
Brazing is not a technique I would use in place of an ordinary weld (without the
appropriate equipment and training), though it has hobby uses for joining other
materials.

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