solar flux?

by Brad
(Iowa)

I really love the site. Thanks for all the wonderful and helpful info. I have been welding for about 15 years and I am still learning new things all the time. My question: I was a pipe fitter/welder for a couple years at a corn sweetener plant. We back purged just about everything. In some tight cases we could not back purge because the plant engineers would not let us shut down that particular system enough to allow us to purge it. In those cases we would use this stuff called solar flux, at least I think that is what it was called. It was a powder that we mixed with rubbing alcohol to a past consistency and smeared on the inside of the pipe edge were the weld was going to be. Once it dried it was supposed to be like a flux coating to compensate for the lack of shielding gas. I am just not sure how good that stuff works. If you have any insight on it that would be great. The job I am doing now could benefit from a product like this if it worked well enough.

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jody here @ welding tips and tricks.

I am not a fan of solar flux. It is better than nothing but not near as good as a good purge.

it will keep the back side from sugaring or granulating, but it makes the puddle all nasty and it doesn't clean up till the second or third pass.
like i said, its better than nothing. but it takes the enjoyment out of tig welding stainless steel pipe....which lets be honest, when things are going good, is pretty awesome.

thanks for the post.

jody