Silicon Bronze with MIG

[aapossien]

I have some work coming up for custom patio furniture, a planter cart, plant stands and some small tables. I'll be using 1/8" thinck angle and 14 ga flattened expanded steel for the tops. I have never tried MIG with silicon bronze wire and wondering if there would be any advantage to using it to attach the expanded steel. I have a Hobart MVP210 and also a spool gun for it.

My thoughts are it would leave a smoother surface and make it less likely to buckle from heat. Some of the pieces will attached to the top where it shows.

[ManoKai]

Run .030 solid wire, vice CuSi. What's your finishing schema? Paint, powdercoat, BlackOxide?, other? CuSi is beautiful, applied properly. Expen$$ive.

[aapossien]

Run .030 solid wire, vice CuSi. What's your finishing schema? Paint, powdercoat, BlackOxide?, other? CuSi is beautiful, applied properly. Expen$$ive.

I have been using .030/.035 on all my previous projects with no problem. I just wanted top pieces to come out smooth with little finishing. The pieces of expanded that will go under the frames obviously won't show welds. One set will be a copper powder coat ($$$), the others will be just a matte black paint. Priced it right for all the pieces. I know CuSi is expensive but there is plenty of room in the budget.

[7A749]

Many automotive parts are welded using SiBr. That was one of the nastiest jobs at Fisher Body back in the day. They wore what looked like space suits in the weld booth where they put the roof on. Could turn your skin green lol.

[DerekV]

SiBro is cool. That machine should be able to handle it fine, but one that has variable voltage and inductance control will run it better. It's nothing like steel...very finicky in every way. Once you get it running good, it's pretty sweet.

It likes argon and big nozzles. If your spool gun nozzle is bigger than your MIG nozzle, use that.

[aapossien]

SiBro is cool. That machine should be able to handle it fine, but one that has variable voltage and inductance control will run it better. It's nothing like steel...very finicky in every way. Once you get it running good, it's pretty sweet.

It likes argon and big nozzles. If your spool gun nozzle is bigger than your MIG nozzle, use that.

I mainly wanted to try it because I never have. I was wondering about the Hobart only has set positions for voltage. Thanks.

[DerekV]

No problem. It doesn't need a lot of voltage at all, so you should be good in terms of having enough power

[131re]

What do you guys with Silcone Bronze experience suggest for Ar flow rates, voltage and wire speed for 18 to 24 gauge sheet metal?

[Jimmy_pop]

i thought about this wire for MIG several years ago and assumed I would need a push-pull gun.

[Silicon-based]

Nope, it feeds fine in a standard gun. I use it regularly, .030 and .035, 12' gun, never a feeding problem.

[Mr. Smith]

One set will be a copper powder coat

I don't have any firsthand experience with powder coating silicon bronze, but the shop that does work for me complains about it bitterly when receiving parts that use that material. The shop claims they have a hell of a time getting powder to stick to it, and it never turns out right the first time. That may be a process deficiency on the part of the powder coating shop, but it's something to be aware of.

[aapossien]

I don't have any firsthand experience with powder coating silicon bronze, but the shop that does work for me complains about it bitterly when receiving parts that use that material. The shop claims they have a hell of a time getting powder to stick to it, and it never turns out right the first time. That may be a process deficiency on the part of the powder coating shop, but it's something to be aware of.

Thanks, that's something to check into.

[69sa200]

Silicon bronze MIG doesn't rust or burn trough as easy as regular MIG. The expanded metal burns trough and cold laps easy. so I would use it for that purpose. I fixed some metal chairs with silicon bronze and it worked great. It's easy to grind too. I would get .030" and use the regular MIG gun. I use this wire in my Hobart 135.

[C. Livingstone]

That's interesting!

Using silicon bronze wire in a 110/120 volt MIG unit might do the trick for me on a truck body panel I've been neglecting to do something about.

Silicon bronze MIG doesn't rust or burn trough as easy as regular MIG. The expanded metal burns trough and cold laps easy. so I would use it for that purpose. I fixed some metal chairs with silicon bronze and it worked great. It's easy to grind too. I would get .030" and use the regular MIG gun. I use this wire in my Hobart 135.

[soutthpaw]

Ok, I got a 2lb spool of.035 silicon bronze. Looking for any good advice on settings. Volts, wire speed, inductance, pulse or no pulse? (Pics/Videos would be great) I just joined some tubing for a gas filler neck on my flatbed (gas cap side, not on the tank). I think I ended up with way more filler on the joint then needed. Didn't burn through. Not sure if I should push or pull? I found 14.5 v and 125-150 IPM seemed to work, pulling. I could still see the puddle solidifying when the auto lens cycled.
How do you feel if it's too hot/cold.
Used it in my spoolgun, no pulse

[soutthpaw]

Anyone?

[Bonzoo]

Most noobz go apechit with weld.Clamp the stuff together and run a 3/8" tack about 6-8-10 inches apart. You couldn't rip it apart with a backhoe.

[scsmith42]

Miller has settings for silicon bronze MiG on their website. Lincoln includes it in the literature for their wire.

I have a few hours of SiBr welding to do this upcoming week on reworking dust collection galvanized duct in my wood shop. It’s the ticket for welding galvanized duct.

[Virgil5]

Miller has settings for silicon bronze MiG on their website. Lincoln includes it in the literature for their wire.

I have a few hours of SiBr welding to do this upcoming week on reworking dust collection galvanized duct in my wood shop. It’s the ticket for welding galvanized duct.

Galvanize duct was the original sale application. Everdur was a DCRP single carbon arc process. Ean really nice once you got the technique down to barely keeping an arc going and walking the filler along. Original formulation couldn't be made to work for dam with O/A. Around 63-4 they changed the formulation and it would run nice with O/A and if you screwed up you could go over it with carbon arc and do a little rework.
One of the big selling points was Everdur didn't generate static electricity in ducts carrying dustload.

Also turned out to be excellent for cast iron with a little Borax flux cheatgrease.

[One1]

Mig Silicon Bronze? I'm going to have to look into that. I only Tig with it. Love the stuff. Always doing some projects with it.

[Sandy]

Nearly identical thread on the subject some time back.

https://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.ph...Silicon-Bronze

[Speerwah]

do you TIG weld silicon bronze with bronze filler ?

[vwguy3]

Yes, silicon bronze filler.
Different than low fuming bronze used for brazing.