Pic tutorial on how to do stove top soldering.

[ol' man]

WARNING, this could be a very dangerous situation and I would recommend you have a good working fan/hood on your stove and/or some ventilation cause the flux vapors could hurt you I guess. Also this is very hot too so use welding gloves and pliers to handle any hot material. You also want a good working faucet nearby also in case some thing goes awry as also some baking soda to put out a fire if started. Maybe a good fire extinguisher wouldn't hurt too. Never drop the hot material on the linoleum floor as it will leave a permanent melt mark there. I know this for a fact cause I used to light my sparklers on the stove during the Forth of July when my Mom wasn’t there and one time the sparklers got out of hand and landed on the floor and to say the least I was beat within' a inch of my life. Now that you have been warned lets continue.............


All pics go from left to right in order and down the pic.

Pic 1.) Sand both surfaces clean

Pic 2.) Apply flux in thin layer on both surfaces to be soldered together.

Pic 3.) Close up of flux

Pic 4.) Put copper on stove and turn to medium high or what is necessary to melt solder. You can see the flux starting to bubble.

Pic 5.) Apply solder in a layer sufficient to make a decent joint.

Pic 6.) Close up of solder spread around and in a liquid form.

Pic 7.) Put copper to be soldered onto the bottom piece on the top one and slightly press down. You could use a small weight for this(1" socket or anything that will not melt). I used water after this point in small amounts to cool it off and then shut off stove. Then I grabbed it with the pliers and ran cold water on it till cold enough to handle.

Pic 8.) Here is where I took the pliers and bent the copper to show how good the joint is. It obviously is very good and strong enough to make a block with. I used silver bearing solder with this demonstration.

Pic 9.) Here is the end result of using this technique to make the block. I didn’t have the camera when I made this and it was experimental at the time. I was not sure it would work but it did.


I also think maybe a good hot plate may work decent for this too as also the old-fashioned propane torch. I have one of those too but inside this seemed easier to do and maybe less dangerous. I live in an apartment. Enjoy.

[ol' man]

Here is a close up of the joint made with this procedure. I did this cause some people were wondering how easy it could be. This is very easy.

[Monaco]

HOLY CRAP!

that's some good stuff there man, I was wondering how to actually DO that! thanks to yer fotos I'm gonna give this a shot!:)

[ol' man]

End result.

[ol' man]

I guess in the above method you want to let the joint cool naturally even though my joint was strong I guess you don't want to do run any water on it. Let it cool by itself.

[Yodums]

Can you show us the outcome?

That looks dangerous! :p Too hardcore for me at least. For anyone else doing this give us the results :p

[KFB]

thanks for the tutorial. i did a little soldering using a Coleman backpack stove. but today i saw a propane torch and MAPP gas canister (burns hotter than propane) and welding rods at the auto parts store (also saw a phatty transmission fluid cooler...drool). do you think that i could be a total rookie welder and actually get those items to work for a dragon orb3 mod or even build my own block?

[woodenman80]

Have you got a Aluminium for the top block which is bolted through with sum sealant ????

I thought aluminium and copper have trouble in the same system??? well that is what i originally heard when i started water cooling :).

Woodenman

[Hoot]

Thank you for starting my day off with a chuckle in remembering experiments from my past. I had to Silver Solder (braze) a large brass plate to a large copper cylinder once. I decided to pre-heat the entire assembly to make the silver soldering go easier. This was late at night and even though I had the range hood fan running full speed, the night was suddenly split by the piercing shriek of the smoke detectors in my house. I ran around trying to turn them all off and as I came around the corner by the bottom of the stairs going up to the bedrooms, my 7 year old daughter flew past me in her underwear heading for the front door, followed closely by one Mad wife. Needless to say, this ended my Stovetop Soldering career. :D

Hoot

[Patchmaster]

It wasn't clear to me from the instructions, but don't you need to heat BOTH pieces that are being soldered? Otherwise you can end up with a cold solder joint that won't hold properly. I think you should put flux on both pieces too.

[Silver]

Had to make my block out of pieces and thus the stove top worked well. The first couple of attempts were failures as the stove was too hot and the pieces would move on their own like on oil or something really slick. Could'nt pick it up as it was many pieces. Playing with the stove I finally found that about medium (a tad more) worked well as I could solder all of the pieces without them moving, yet when I cut the heat it would "set" within a couple of minutes. A couple of drops of water (as stated earlier) did help in bringing the temp down to set the solder. Once the solder had set I could pick it up and place it under the tap.

[Sonny]

Originally posted by Hoot
Thank you for starting my day off with a chuckle in remembering experiments from my past. I had to Silver Solder (braze) a large brass plate to a large copper cylinder once. I decided to pre-heat the entire assembly to make the silver soldering go easier. This was late at night and even though I had the range hood fan running full speed, the night was suddenly split by the piercing shriek of the smoke detectors in my house. I ran around trying to turn them all off and as I came around the corner by the bottom of the stairs going up to the bedrooms, my 7 year old daughter flew past me in her underwear heading for the front door, followed closely by one Mad wife. Needless to say, this ended my Stovetop Soldering career. :D

Hoot ROTFLMAO!!!!!

[ocean]

While I admire the ingenuity of the stove top method........
A propane or mapp gas torch can be had for around $20.00us at Home Depot, Menards etc. ;) :beer:

[Pepsi]

SWEET!
I thought I was the only crazy person that uses the stove for things other than cooking. Try this out sometime (not to hijack your thread) Spray painted objects dry faster in the oven, Plexiglas will turn into a noodle at 200 degrees, epoxy resins will set faster and harder in the oven, you can even powercoat parts. Once I get my garage built there will be an old oven in there.
Cool reading!
Stay Hot!
Pepsi:cool:

[ol' man]

Originally posted by Yodums
Can you show us the outcome?

That looks dangerous! :p Too hardcore for me at least. For anyone else doing this give us the results :p

Hey yodums I did back in november and december. I got my cel-t 1200 to 1700MHz with this block and cryo cooling from a fridge. That chip on air would only do about 1550 MHz at best but my new one will do 1650 and I would bet since there is a 100MHz increase there 1800MHz would be obtainable with my new chip. That would be A SMOKER.

No one remembers my escapade with my freon cooled coolant. O yeah I hit -20 deg. C. I may do it again you never know. I am thinking keeping the chip at about 5 deg. C would be better than
-20 as maybe then condesation would not possibly be a issue.

The block works great. Who ever thinks that a propane torch will work better oughta think again. It does not if you know the proper amount of heat to give this. ALso for those that think it is a cold joint once again think again. Usually you set both pieces of the copper on the stove at the same time. You jokers make this way harder than it really is.

[ol' man]

O yeah if you didn't notice this was the result.......

And no if you setup your coolant up right you will have no electroreduction of the aluminum or copper.

[RainMaQer]

ol' man.... I'm completely lost as to how you did this... You soldered copper to aluminum... correct? What kind of solder did you use? I tried soooo many times and different solders.... nothing would bond to the aluminum.... granted I'm using silver instead of copper... but the silver wasn't a problem... just the aluminum... mind helping a fellow member here? :D

[Silver]

Originally posted by ocean
While I admire the ingenuity of the stove top method........
A propane or mapp gas torch can be had for around $20.00us at Home Depot, Menards etc. ;) :beer:

I have a soldering torch. The problem is that I do not have or have acces to any milling equipement. This meant that the block had to be made of pieces. The whole entity needed to be heat up at the same time so the stove was put to use. This allowed the insertion of the interior as well as all of the sides and the top at one go. Block is 4.0x3.5x.75.

[Koooler King]

Just a quick reply on the topic. First, please do make note of all the cautions previously mentioned on fumes, etc. However, if you have an oven with good ventilation that can reach 500 Deg. F, you can probably solder even better than on stove top (copper to copper). The trick is to heat everything evenly and slowly which is tough to do with a torch. That would require a simple ZnCl based flux and 50-50 lead tin solder.

As for copper to aluminum, that is tough as the chemicals in the correct flux for that are mostly very toxic and require a very high tempurature. There are a few alloys of solder that claim they can join copper to aluminum at lower temps (450 deg. F), but my experinece has been they are not that reliable for many reasons ... don't bother with it unless you are in an industrial setting. If you really want to join aluminum to copper, the best method is to nickel plate the aluminum and use conventional lead tin solder at that point.

Good luck.

Koooler King

[eobard]

So who's gonna be the first to do this for one of the Doctor's core volt or one of Hoot's mosfet volt mods????? ;)

[Silver]

This is a little off topic but I believe there was someone here looking to bond aluminum and copper? See if this site is of any help. www.solder-it.com , there may be a thing or two there for you.

[dream caster]

If you have metal to metal contact no problem in using copper and aluminum together!
#Rotor (at [H]ard forums) makes and sells blocks with both metals and never has had a problem. This is the point: if metals touch there is no voltage difference between them so there is no electrolitic corrosion, if they do not touch there is.

[Koooler King]

Originally posted by dream caster
If you have metal to metal contact no problem in using copper and aluminum together!
#Rotor (at [H]ard forums) makes and sells blocks with both metals and never has had a problem. This is the point: if metals touch there is no voltage difference between them so there is no electrolitic corrosion, if they do not touch there is.

In theory, if metals were 100% pure, homogeneous, and in perfect contact, you are probably correct, no electrical / chemical potential to cause corrosion. However, in practice, the metallic grain structures, the impurities, and other factors do create electrical potential in metals, not only from dissimilar metals, but even within the same metal if it has been processed to change a portion of it, e.g. it was welded or soldered, then a process called "intergranular corrosion" can happen with the right tempuratures and exposure to corrosive agents (e.g water with impurities).

For example, this kind of action can eat away automotive radiators if not protected, but they operate at 110 Deg. C / 230 Deg F. They survive due to the additives in the typical antifreeze that slow this effect. If your cpu tempurature never exceeds 40 deg. C (hopefully), then the corrosive effect will take perhaps a 100x to 1000x fold factor longer to happen ... you will be onto the next 2 generations of cpus before you'd see it. Still good advice ... use corrosive inhibiter in your water to further protect your system. Good Luck!

Koooler King

[Grande Juan]

You must be crazy pepsi, that sounds like a bomb to me. Except for the plexiglass one I like that one, can't wait to try it any tips?

[Silver]

Originally posted by Grande Juan
You must be crazy pepsi, that sounds like a bomb to me. Except for the plexiglass one I like that one, can't wait to try it any tips?

Make sure it is a water base paint.:D