"If braze was unable to be painted, then N&W locomotives would have been gold instead of black. Those hillbillies used braze to repair everything, whether it was appropriate or not, I assume due to their experience assembling stills."

I'm not trying to be funny here, but I happen to have my Grandfather's still. It looks just like what you would see in a Snuffy Smith cartoon, and it is stuck together with lead based solder. Impossible ?? I've had some of the strawberry firewater made with it, which was divine. Toxic ?? Probably, but what a way to go.

If by divine, you mean exceptionally sweet, You might want to see if the lead in the solder mixed with acetic acid to form lead acetate. Called sapa by Romans, it was used as the first calorie free sweetener.

I had thought of that very thing, but since one bottle didn't kill me, and there are no more where that one came from.....

It is rather shocking when you realize the word "plumbing" was derived the Latin plumbum and the modern chemical symbol for lead is Pb...(might not be news to the people that took chemistry seriously)

It's amazing some of things human beings did in the past. Mercury as a laxative; radium as a health tonic....

I'm sure you'll be ok with just a snort.

In Spanish "plomo" is lead. "Plomero" is plumber.

Maybe my family SHOULD have opened a (legal) distillery. We had giant strawberries grown in rich, gooey soil, under broiling Louisiana sun, and back then there were a lot of smaller sugar mills nearby that made super sweet brown sugar. It's GOT to be a more profitable enterprise than rescuing a wreck of an old steam engine.

A hope "Audrey" didn't hear you say that!

Think of it this way Les, she knows I'm not after her for the money...

Burning money in packs of 50's is more profitable than rescuing a steam engine. The rescue is just the entry fee. The stable fees, oats, blacksmith and other costs are killer.

Interesting, and I stand corrected. I was taught to use "welding" only when fusion with the base metal or the weld bead was used. It does make sense to distinguish the technique used at Strasburg from typical brazing, and it's certainly appropriate to consider brazing 'as strong as' some welding (it certainly was in airframe construction). Although I wish they'd called it 'stick brazing' to avoid semantic confusion.

When did AWS start using British spelling for 'liquidus' and 'solidus' phases?

Back in the day, I knew a guy who would weld things together with a torch and a wire coat hanger!

How about a car battery, some jumper cables, and a bit of baling wire ??

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Funny how they get it done in record time and people turn to getting their feathers ruffled over brazing and paint....

One of the first things I learned about welding is that it is defined as, in the simplest of terms, the fusion of metal through heat. Last I checked they did use torches to make the repairs, so....

Over the years of involvement with steam locomotives I've learned that there is a wide range of skill levels between welders.

One example that I will always remember is the extremely high skill level of ex.NKP boilermaker Joe Karal who led our efforts in restoring NKP 759 and Rdg.2101 ( AFT 1 ).
In 1976 our insurance underwriter ordered us to have the various welds done in the boiler system on 2101 done by Joe Karal inspected and x-rayed to ensure their quality as Joe's " certification" was his 45 years experience on the NKP keeping their steam fleet running safely and not from an industry standard " certification".

Long story short we did as instructed and the report came back " all welds inspected and found to be flaw free". My foreman on the job told me that the guy would did the inspection said to him as he was packing up to leave that" in 25 years at this job those were the most beautiful welds I've ever seen". And, what he really marveled over was the welds that required Joe to weld over his head.

I'm guess that with everything today computer assisted perfect welds are probably much more common today??

Thanks, Ross Rowland

Always felt that I've missed something by not working with Joe Karal! Worked with some of his students however.

Was always impressed by power-plant boiler makers; their welds looked like a "Stack of Dimes" and always withstood x-ray and ultra-sound testing; at those pressures, tubes require a "Root Pass" then fill weld; a science as well as an art.