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snuggle_sauce t1_jd4nkay wrote

Reply to comment by FliesLikeABrick in Lessons learned during garden trowel braze repair by FliesLikeABrick

If you don’t have a welder you should find an automotive shop, they would probably do it for nothing. It’s only take a few seconds.

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556223556 t1_jd4rmjy wrote

Seems a lot easier to just fix it in his shop with what he has vs driving to a mechanic and bothering them to weld something they don't want to deal with and may not be equipped to do.

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FliesLikeABrick OP t1_jd4tlxd wrote

This is exactly right, I have multiple welding processes available but do not have the right mix of welder, technique, and materials on hand to weld stainless - it is something I have never needed to do in my shop and I am skeptical of the quality of stainless here in the first place.

As it is I can't tell if the original joint was a weld or something more like a silver solder/braze. I imagine if it was a weld they would have had better penetration and cross-section than it had, so who knows if it was material that was even amenable to welding.

That is all to say I 100% agree with you. I knew it would take braze regardless of alloy, and with brazing there was almost 0% chance of destroying the base metal with poor heat control or other inexperience. Especially because I do not have any tiny OA tips or TIG available, the chances of me burning through the plate portion would just be too high.

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snuggle_sauce t1_jd4sefr wrote

You can weld stainless with a MIG, TIG, or a simple stick welder. There are lots of places you can ask to do stuff that they don’t normally deal in, just takes a question and the guts to ask it. Just around my small town I know of a boat place, 3 mechanics and a machine shop that’d do this in a heartbeat. Hell, if you have a friendly farmer nearby they could do it too.

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FliesLikeABrick OP t1_jd4t6ff wrote

Thank you for prompting me to clarify - I have multiple welders (stick (no stainless electrodes and too thin), MIG (no stainless wire), and my OA setup(no filler and inexperience)) but I do not have TIG or another way to weld stainless, like the thinner part of this trowel here. I could have technically done it with OA, but I do not have stainless filler, don't know what alloy this is theoretically supposed to be, and would probably burn through it since it would be my first time welding stainless with gas

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