If an oil cooling radiator has leaked on your machine or you urgently need to weld two aluminum tubes together, and there is no argon welding at hand, then in this case there is an alternative - soldering using a specialized solder.
Features of soldering without argon
For high-quality brazing of aluminum at home, a specialized solder is used (these are hts-2000 and castolin 192), which is a thin zinc tube filled with solid flux powder.
Flux is needed in order to dissolve a solid oxide film on the surface of aluminum - and the soldering itself occurs at a temperature of 480 degrees Celsius. To quickly melt the solder, you can use a conventional gas burner.
Please note that it is better not to use a small burner for these purposes, since its flame is narrow and does not warm the surface of the tube, as a result of which the solder is collected in balls. The best option is a cylinder nozzle burner. Its flame is wide and allows you to warm the metal area.
How to solder aluminum
First, warm up the tube a bit, and then bring the solder - it immediately melts and quickly spreads, filling holes or cracks in the metal. In this way, it is possible to solder not only holes in aluminum tubes, but also to quality solder together products made of sheet aluminum.
Specialized solder allows you to solder a variety of aluminum tubes and strips of aluminum at home, while ensuring high tightness and strength of the seam.