First Practice Fille

So, a buddy at work gave me a Soma CX frame he had cracked the DT on. Going to use it for practice in the not too distant future by fillet brazing a new DT in. So, mitered up some tubes and did my first practice fillet.

Felt better than it turned out, but my biggest issue is being able to see the brass while I'm brazing. VERY difficult to differentiate between the brass and the flux when it's up to temp. Don't know if the lenses are too dark or too light. I'm also thinking I might step down the torch size by 1.

Any words of wisdom here?

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What glasses are you using? What filler rod and flux? I don't see much burning so not yet too hot. I like a small and tight flame for fillet. You really only want the area you're trying to add filler to be hot enough. Gravity and too much heat away from the spot you're adding filler to results in the filler running away from the joint (as in photo #3). Andy.

I've tried 2 different sets of my Oakley sunglasses after trying the goggles I have. Not sure what the googles are. Might be a 5.

The runaway was the tack....right as I started tacking some guy walks up to the garage to try to sell me siding.....what perfect timing!

I'm using GFM Type B flux with 1/16" brass.

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Originally Posted by Giff

I've tried 2 different sets of my Oakley sunglasses after trying the goggles I have. Not sure what the googles are. Might be a 5.

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I use my Oakleys. I have the blue ice tint lenses. I think they are one of the more heavily tinted lenses for very sunny days. I use them for bronze, and for silver I use a very lightly shaded lense, or clear lenses. And low lighting in the shop helps. I don't like it "lights out" dark, but I don't have spot lights shining on the project I'm brazing.

I'm no expert but I have come to enjoy fillet brazing so I bought a pair of Green Ace IR glasses for here Lampworking Glassblowing Glass The #1 Choice Among Professional Glassworkers . The block the yellow light emitted by the burning flux and the ones I bought have a shade 3 lens to keep things dark. They are night and day compared to even very dark regular sunglasses and well worth the investment so far.

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Originally Posted by Greensabbath

I'm no expert but I have come to enjoy fillet brazing so I bought a pair of Green Ace IR glasses for here Lampworking Glassblowing Glass The #1 Choice Among Professional Glassworkers . The block the yellow light emitted by the burning flux and the ones I bought have a shade 3 lens to keep things dark. They are night and day compared to even very dark regular sunglasses and well worth the investment so far.

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Me too. Made a huge difference in being able to see what's going on with the puddle. Since the eyes are getting a bit worn out, I picked up a pair with magnification and then use a 3 clip ons.

I use green ace #2 glasses over reading glasses. At Trek we used didymium glasses without a tint at all, but apparently that isn't the best idea. If you look up the people brazing in the old catalogs, that's what they are wearing

Thanks for the suggestion on the glasses. Sounds like those would be perfect, but they are spendy!

Any less expensive alternatives? I don't plan to do a lot of fillet brazing....

Sunglasses work okay when learning how to brass braze. Going back to your original post, your fillet is a bit lumpy because you held the heat in one place just a bit too long. Your flame is like an on/off switch as you move it on and off of the fillet. You change the ratio of on/off to keep the brass where you want it and not run to where you don’t (if you held it in one place too long). You control brass by keeping it between its liquid and solid state (in other words just at the temperature when it is like putty). Too much heat and it becomes runny and too hard to control where it goes. You need to get it hot enough to melt and add. As soon as it starts to go beyond where you want it to be, you turn the switch off my removing the flame from the joint. It works best for me if I’m pretty quick getting the flame in and out so I don’t encourage the brass to want to go somewhere it shouldn’t. It’s a pretty snappy motion. Be conscience of the route it travels so its not effecting someplace other than your primary area.

I think the ace glasses I bought may be the best investment of $130 I spent. Ever since using the didymium glasses, I feel stupid wearing anything else, and they work just as well for lugs as fillets.

I can braze using the typical #5 welding glasses, but why? I use the #5 welding glasses for gas welding when making shop equipment. The difference is night and day.

So would something like these in the standard ACE make sense: Arrow Springs Eyewear

And then if I need additional shade I could slip the Oakleys over them?

Doug thanks for the pointers! I think I figured out the motions much better on Sunday but I'll need to do some more practicing this week

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Originally Posted by Greensabbath

I'm no expert but I have come to enjoy fillet brazing so I bought a pair of Green Ace IR glasses for here Lampworking Glassblowing Glass The #1 Choice Among Professional Glassworkers . The block the yellow light emitted by the burning flux and the ones I bought have a shade 3 lens to keep things dark. They are night and day compared to even very dark regular sunglasses and well worth the investment so far.

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Im also just beginning to dip my toes into the world of fillets, most recently practice brazing with a gasfluxer and man, the flame is MUCH brighter than it was without the fluxer...any recommendation for eyewear that would work well with the bright/green gasfluxer flame? The ray bans I've been wearing just don't feel quite as dark as I would like...

Thanks in advance everyone and good luck with your practicing Giff!

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Originally Posted by eBAUMANN

Im also just beginning to dip my toes into the world of fillets, most recently practice brazing with a gasfluxer and man, the flame is MUCH brighter than it was without the fluxer...any recommendation for eyewear that would work well with the bright/green gasfluxer flame? The ray bans I've been wearing just don't feel quite as dark as I would like...

Thanks in advance everyone and good luck with your practicing Giff!

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Gasfluxers do make it bright. The best setup that I've used is the didymium lens a #3 shade as a flip up in front. The didymium really cuts out the yellow flare of the gasfluxer and the #3 keeps you safe.

The Phillips 202 glasses made all the difference! Did some more practicing and decided to give it a go. A few area ended up with a bit too much material, but overall I'm really please. Just need to braze the shifter bosses on and do some clean up


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