Fillet brazing Columbus Max - Brass or Silver?

[cmsanford88]

Hey guys! Starting to think about a road bike build and I'd like to use columbus max top and down tubes. I'm curious about the ride quality and think working with the shaped tubes could be a fun challenge. After some research I see that the new Max tubes are niobium, which like the thread below will be my first entry into high end tubing. I wanted to ask if folks here have some pointers for fillet brazing the stuff. I'm guessing fillet-pro might be a good route, assuming it's more heat sensitive than the 4130 and ZONA I've used before. That said, it's also relatively thick walled for niobium tubing, and I feel more comfortable getting a fillet down quickly in brass. Appreciate any insight!

Best
Chris

[Eric Estlund]

With decent heat control brass is fine.

If you are worried about overcooking, keep running those practice joints on thin wall pieces.

[cmsanford88]

Thanks Eric! For sure gonna knock out a bunch more practice joints. In general have found the silver based stuff to be pretty squirrely, at least for a beginner. Happy to hear it's doable in brass.

With decent heat control brass is fine.

If you are worried about overcooking, keep running those practice joints on thin wall pieces.

[steve garro]

Happy to hear it's doable in brass.

There is absolutely no reason to use anything else on any steel which is not considered "stainless" and indeed silver based fillers are not as strong as copper based ones.

- Garro.