I'm going to try my hand at brazing new carbide on some chipped and worn boring bars for my mill .
I'm going to try my hand at brazing new carbide on some chipped and
worn boring bars for my mill . I have 3 choices for heat source , O/A
, TIG , or my induction heater . I also have a couple of choices for
braze filler , phosphor bronze TIG filler , regular brazing rod , and
silver solder if I can find mine . I also have some brass wire ,
composition unknown and a few sticks of silphos , though I don't know
if that will stick to steel . I also have both borax and regular
brazing flux .
-aThe plan is to heat and remove the old/broken insert , apply flux and
a thin piece of brazing filler topped with a new carbide piece , and
heat to brazing temp . After watching a couple of youtube videos it
looks like I may need to hold the new carbide in place as it
heats/cools , I'll probably use a piece of SS TIG filler for that .
-a I just realized that I can replace the carbide teeth on the face
mill that came with my milling machine . I tried to sharpen the
cutters on the lathe , turned out less than optimum . If I do that
I'll use the indexing device I built for sharpening end mills to
sharpen them . Might try that to even them up , might turn out I don't
need to replace them right away .
-aThoughts on heat source and filler selections ?
"Snag"-a wrote in message news:10n3d2g$2b87p$1@dont-email.me...
-a I'm going to try my hand at brazing new carbide on some chipped and
worn boring bars for my mill .
What grade of carbide are you using, and why?
I finally have grinders with diamond wheels to resharpen brazed tools
and inserts.
On 18/02/2026 03:52, Snag wrote:
I'm going to try my hand at brazing new carbide on some chipped and
worn boring bars for my mill . I have 3 choices for heat source , O/A
, TIG , or my induction heater . I also have a couple of choices for
braze filler , phosphor bronze TIG filler , regular brazing rod , and
silver solder if I can find mine . I also have some brass wire ,
composition unknown and a few sticks of silphos , though I don't know
if that will stick to steel . I also have both borax and regular
brazing flux .
-aThe plan is to heat and remove the old/broken insert , apply flux and
a thin piece of brazing filler topped with a new carbide piece , and
heat to brazing temp . After watching a couple of youtube videos it
looks like I may need to hold the new carbide in place as it
heats/cools , I'll probably use a piece of SS TIG filler for that .
-a I just realized that I can replace the carbide teeth on the face
mill that came with my milling machine . I tried to sharpen the
cutters on the lathe , turned out less than optimum . If I do that
I'll use the indexing device I built for sharpening end mills to
sharpen them . Might try that to even them up , might turn out I don't
need to replace them right away .
-aThoughts on heat source and filler selections ?
I don't know if regular brazing flux is going to do it, I use one
intended for brazing tips and stainless steel as it is formulated to
deal with the more tenacious oxides.
-a I'm going to try my hand at brazing new carbide on some chipped and
worn boring bars for my mill . I have 3 choices for heat source , O/A ,
TIG , or my induction heater . I also have a couple of choices for braze filler , phosphor bronze TIG filler , regular brazing rod , and silver solder if I can find mine . I also have some brass wire , composition unknown and a few sticks of silphos , though I don't know if that will
stick to steel . I also have both borax and regular brazing flux .
-aThe plan is to heat and remove the old/broken insert , apply flux and
a thin piece of brazing filler topped with a new carbide piece , and
heat to brazing temp . After watching a couple of youtube videos it
looks like I may need to hold the new carbide in place as it heats/
cools , I'll probably use a piece of SS TIG filler for that .
-a I just realized that I can replace the carbide teeth on the face mill that came with my milling machine . I tried to sharpen the cutters on
the lathe , turned out less than optimum . If I do that I'll use the indexing device I built for sharpening end mills to sharpen them . Might
try that to even them up , might turn out I don't need to replace them
right away .
-aThoughts on heat source and filler selections ?
I tried to sharpen the cutters on the lathe , turned out less than optimum
. If I do that I'll use the indexing device I built for sharpening end
mills to sharpen them . Might try that to even them up , might turn out I don't need to replace them right away .
Snag
"Snag"-a wrote in message news:10n3d2g$2b87p$1@dont-email.me...
I tried to sharpen the cutters on the lathe , turned out less than
optimum . If I do that I'll use the indexing device I built for
sharpening end mills to sharpen them . Might try that to even them up
, might turn out I don't need to replace them right away .
Snag
My second-hand example of the Baldor clone is good enough for hobby use. https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Grizzly-Industrial-Heavy-Duty-Tool-Grinder-H7762/328192591?
The alignment and assembly aren't perfect but it's close enough. It had belonged to and got some use at a high-class marine engineering firm.
... Baldor clone ...
"Snag"-a wrote in message news:10n5n9s$34b1t$1@dont-email.me...
On 2/18/2026 4:56 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
-a... Baldor clone ...
-aI was talking about the block/collet holder I made to hold end mills
to sharpen the ends . I have some kind of bonded grinding disc that was
meant for sharpening circular saw blades - I don't know what that stuff
is but it cut the diamond point that I tried to true it with .
Snag
------------------------------
CBN?
I do remember them, left and right handed. I made an adapter for mine to hold S&D drill bit shanks centered in the 5C collet to be sharpened at
the back relief angle setting.
I did find the carbide cutters I was looking for . I can cut chunks oversize with a diamond blade and grind to final shape after brazing them
to the shank .
Snag
On 2/18/2026 4:56 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"Snag"-a wrote in message news:10n3d2g$2b87p$1@dont-email.me...
I tried to sharpen the cutters on the lathe , turned out less than
optimum . If I do that I'll use the indexing device I built for
sharpening end mills to sharpen them . Might try that to even them
up , might turn out I don't need to replace them right away .
Snag
My second-hand example of the Baldor clone is good enough for hobby use.
https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Grizzly-Industrial-Heavy-Duty-Tool-Grinder-H7762/328192591?
The alignment and assembly aren't perfect but it's close enough. It
had belonged to and got some use at a high-class marine engineering
firm.
-aI was talking about the block/collet holder I made to hold end mills
to sharpen the ends . I have some kind of bonded grinding disc that
was meant for sharpening circular saw blades - I don't know what that
stuff is but it cut the diamond point that I tried to true it with .
On 2/18/2026 4:56 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"Snag"-a wrote in message news:10n3d2g$2b87p$1@dont-email.me...
I tried to sharpen the cutters on the lathe , turned out less than
optimum . If I do that I'll use the indexing device I built for
sharpening end mills to sharpen them . Might try that to even them
up , might turn out I don't need to replace them right away .
Snag
My second-hand example of the Baldor clone is good enough for hobby use.
https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Grizzly-Industrial-Heavy-Duty-Tool-
Grinder-H7762/328192591?
The alignment and assembly aren't perfect but it's close enough. It
had belonged to and got some use at a high-class marine engineering firm.
-aI was talking about the block/collet holder I made to hold end mills
to sharpen the ends . I have some kind of bonded grinding disc that was meant for sharpening circular saw blades - I don't know what that stuff
is but it cut the diamond point that I tried to true it with .
"Snag"-a wrote in message news:10n5puf$352vj$1@dont-email.me...
-a I did find the carbide cutters I was looking for . I can cut chunks
oversize with a diamond blade and grind to final shape after brazing
them to the shank .
Snag
I wonder it it would be simpler to braze the end of the carbide shank to
the steel tool and then cut it off, giving you an area out of the flame
to fixture the carbide securely in place.
-a I'm going to try my hand at brazing new carbide on some chipped and
worn boring bars for my mill . I have 3 choices for heat source , O/A ,
TIG , or my induction heater . I also have a couple of choices for braze filler , phosphor bronze TIG filler , regular brazing rod , and silver solder if I can find mine . I also have some brass wire , composition unknown and a few sticks of silphos , though I don't know if that will
stick to steel . I also have both borax and regular brazing flux .
-aThe plan is to heat and remove the old/broken insert , apply flux and
a thin piece of brazing filler topped with a new carbide piece , and
heat to brazing temp . After watching a couple of youtube videos it
looks like I may need to hold the new carbide in place as it heats/
cools , I'll probably use a piece of SS TIG filler for that .
-a I just realized that I can replace the carbide teeth on the face mill that came with my milling machine . I tried to sharpen the cutters on
the lathe , turned out less than optimum . If I do that I'll use the indexing device I built for sharpening end mills to sharpen them . Might
try that to even them up , might turn out I don't need to replace them
right away .
-aThoughts on heat source and filler selections ?
On 2/17/2026 8:52 PM, Snag wrote:
-a-a I'm going to try my hand at brazing new carbide on some chipped and
worn boring bars for my mill . I have 3 choices for heat source , O/A
, TIG , or my induction heater . I also have a couple of choices for
braze filler , phosphor bronze TIG filler , regular brazing rod , and
silver solder if I can find mine . I also have some brass wire ,
composition unknown and a few sticks of silphos , though I don't know
if that will stick to steel . I also have both borax and regular
brazing flux .
-a-aThe plan is to heat and remove the old/broken insert , apply flux
and a thin piece of brazing filler topped with a new carbide piece ,
and heat to brazing temp . After watching a couple of youtube videos
it looks like I may need to hold the new carbide in place as it heats/
cools , I'll probably use a piece of SS TIG filler for that .
-a-a I just realized that I can replace the carbide teeth on the face
mill that came with my milling machine . I tried to sharpen the
cutters on the lathe , turned out less than optimum . If I do that
I'll use the indexing device I built for sharpening end mills to
sharpen them . Might try that to even them up , might turn out I don't
need to replace them right away .
-a-aThoughts on heat source and filler selections ?
A quick read tells me silver solder 45% silver or higher is considered "best".
Silfos (typically 15) is for copper to copper or copper to bronze.-a I
have a couple pieces I used for soldering copper tube on an AC unit.
Silfos is nice for copper as it is supposed to be self fluxing, making
out of position work easier in theory.-a In reality I only got good
joints on the bench.
Brass can work, but it doesn't stick to the carbide as well as silver.
I have a small section of 45% silver solder around somewhere and I can
tell you it was expensive.-a I bought it at the a local welding store,
the better one, that doesn't usually gouge me.-a It was NOT good enough
for repairing band saw blades.-a But there should be no flex in your
carbide to steel connection.-a If you want it you know how to reach me,
to remind me of your address.-a (If I can find it.)
There are light fluxes and dark fluxes, and I think those with boron
(black brazing flux) is best, but borax might be a poor man's
alternative.-a They use borax at forging temperatures afterall, (and for some heat treating operations) so it probably won't burn off.
Some I recalled, some I got from an old This Old Tony Video, and some I double checked using Goggle's AI search function.
"Bob La Londe"-a wrote in message news:10nac3h$ld39$1@dont-email.me...
Silfos (typically 15) is for copper to copper or copper to bronze.-a I
have a couple pieces I used for soldering copper tube on an AC unit.
Silfos is nice for copper as it is supposed to be self fluxing, making
out of position work easier in theory.-a In reality I only got good
joints on the bench.
--------------------------------
On steel Silfos forms brittle iron phosphide that weakens the joint.
On steel Silfos forms brittle iron phosphide that weakens the joint.
On 2/17/2026 8:52 PM, Snag wrote:
-a-a I'm going to try my hand at brazing new carbide on some chipped
and worn boring bars for my mill . I have 3 choices for heat source ,
O/A , TIG , or my induction heater . I also have a couple of choices
for braze filler , phosphor bronze TIG filler , regular brazing rod ,
and silver solder if I can find mine . I also have some brass wire ,
composition unknown and a few sticks of silphos , though I don't know
if that will stick to steel . I also have both borax and regular
brazing flux .
-a-aThe plan is to heat and remove the old/broken insert , apply flux
and a thin piece of brazing filler topped with a new carbide piece ,
and heat to brazing temp . After watching a couple of youtube videos
it looks like I may need to hold the new carbide in place as it
heats/ cools , I'll probably use a piece of SS TIG filler for that .
-a-a I just realized that I can replace the carbide teeth on the face
mill that came with my milling machine . I tried to sharpen the
cutters on the lathe , turned out less than optimum . If I do that
I'll use the indexing device I built for sharpening end mills to
sharpen them . Might try that to even them up , might turn out I
don't need to replace them right away .
-a-aThoughts on heat source and filler selections ?
A quick read tells me silver solder 45% silver or higher is considered "best".
Silfos (typically 15) is for copper to copper or copper to bronze.-a I
have a couple pieces I used for soldering copper tube on an AC unit.
Silfos is nice for copper as it is supposed to be self fluxing, making
out of position work easier in theory.-a In reality I only got good
joints on the bench.
Brass can work, but it doesn't stick to the carbide as well as silver.
I have a small section of 45% silver solder around somewhere and I can
tell you it was expensive.-a I bought it at the a local welding store,
the better one, that doesn't usually gouge me.-a It was NOT good enough
for repairing band saw blades.-a But there should be no flex in your
carbide to steel connection.-a If you want it you know how to reach me,
to remind me of your address.-a (If I can find it.)
There are light fluxes and dark fluxes, and I think those with boron
(black brazing flux) is best, but borax might be a poor man's
alternative.-a They use borax at forging temperatures afterall, (and
for some heat treating operations) so it probably won't burn off.
Some I recalled, some I got from an old This Old Tony Video, and some
I double checked using Goggle's AI search function.
...I tried a mix I found onlinewhich called for them as part of a recipe for preventing/reducing
"David Billington"-a wrote in message
news:10ncf0a$17n49$1@dont-email.me...
...I tried a mix I found onlinewhich called for them as part of a recipe for preventing/reducing
firescale on steel during heat treatment and it didn't seem to work very well, subsequently I got some Condursal Z1100 and that seems to work
well, cost more but does what it says on the tin.
-------------
Natural sodium stearate soap (Ivory) works pretty well in combination
with a closed tube containing charcoal or sawdust.
"David Billington" wrote in message news:10ncf0a$17n49$1@dont-email.me...
...I tried a mix I found onlinewhich called for them as part of a recipe for preventing/reducing
firescale on steel during heat treatment and it didn't seem to work very well, subsequently I got some Condursal Z1100 and that seems to work
well, cost more but does what it says on the tin.
-------------
Natural sodium stearate soap (Ivory) works pretty well in combination with
a closed tube containing charcoal or sawdust.
"David Billington"-a wrote in message
news:10nctj4$17n49$2@dont-email.me...
On 21/02/2026 17:48, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"David Billington"-a wrote in messageYes my other option is stainless tool wrapping foil which I use for some items when tempering/normalising and include some wood inside to
news:10ncf0a$17n49$1@dont-email.me...
...I tried a mix I found onlinewhich called for them as part of a recipe for preventing/reducing
firescale on steel during heat treatment and it didn't seem to work very
well, subsequently I got some Condursal Z1100 and that seems to work
well, cost more but does what it says on the tin.
-------------
Natural sodium stearate soap (Ivory) works pretty well in combination
with a closed tube containing charcoal or sawdust.
scavenge the oxygen remaining which results in just minor discolouration
like from tempering, no scale. The Condursal was for use with items to
be hardened so I could drop them straight into the quench tank without
having to remove the foil.
---------------------------------
I have some of that foil too and use it sparingly on longer items.
Short tools go in a soup/vegetable can with the lid not completely
removed, so the tool can be extracted with tongs or shaken out above
the quench, which if oil is in the door opening of the wood stove.
A can on its side with a floor of charcoal contains a propane torch
flame well enough to evenly heat a tool larger than it could in free
air. The burning charcoal contributes a lot of distributed infrared.
The flame needs to swirl inside the can and have a place to exit,
straight in doesn't work so well.
"David Billington"-a wrote in message
news:10nf3et$24dkv$1@dont-email.me...
I've got a small Gallenkamp Hotspot kiln bought for enamelling but good
for heat treat as it'll go to about 1050C, and a 18" top loader ceramic
kiln which gets used for larger pieces such as normalising CRS when
required. Both are controlled with PID controllers with thermocouples
which are added on and the kilns plug into them and the power controller
set to 100%. One is just ramp/soak the other can take more complex heat/soak/cool if required.
------------------------------------------
That's a better approach with more control.
My enameling kiln draws 2 KW and in an hour would double my average
daily electricity use. I try to avoid consuming that much unless
there's no alternative (lathe, mill) and use my stock of free firewood instead, trying to develop skill in the old methods on uncritical
hobby jobs.
I bought this model of tube furnace minus the controller for about 1%
of this price. It draws around 500W warming up and heats the small
volume quickly, then its thick insulation holds at low duty cycle. https://cbisurplus.com/product/lindberg-54233-59545-type-54233-1500aoc-heavy-duty-tube-furnace-w-59545-control-console/
The 50mm tube is meant to be Pyrex, I have car exhaust pipe and
stainless flange-end sanitary (brewing) tubing for it, if necessary
the tube could be evacuated or filled with inert gas. The size was
good for tempering a long narrow froe blade of 5160 at 175C, twice for
an hour each. I intended it for custom long drills and reamers.
Its thermocouples are Type P (Platinel), a near but not exact match to
type K. My on/off controller doesn't have a P setting so I read
temperature with a Type K alarm indicator that does. This gear is all
from auctions or flea markets and often needed some repair or fiddling
to work right. Reseating the socketed ICs fixed the 'broken' 5 channel
Type K readout that monitors my wood stove from the kitchen.
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