Mark,
Thanks for the addition of your comments for safety sake. Let me add a few things. One should not breath fumes from brazing no matter what material you're using; especially silver brazing flux. The flourides(sp) in the flux are in those fumes. The cadmium is a heavy metal and actully is headed for the floor and only seperates from tha alloy if overheated. Do NOT lay on the floor near your frame once you're done brazing. Seriously though, if you have a dog or something that likes to hang around while you're working (I do) then you must scoot them out while you're working and until the room clears. I leave the room once I'm done and let the frame cool(that's when I come upstairs [and bring my pet platypus] and check my email). Then I'll go back and open the doors and work again. If you're using the proper silver brazing alloy (EF 45) and you see a semi-dense yellowish smoke, you are not brazing correctly. That often happens when the lug for example is hotter than the tube (both should be equal temp.) and one tries to add brazing material. The braze will jump all over the lug but won't stick to the tube or go inside the joint like it is supposed to. From that point on one will be burning silver that is on top of the lug. Trust me, the silver does no good there and that's where most of the fumes come from; but an experienced brazer never sees them! Always be mindful of the flourides, but skilled brazing allows a proffessional to use the best silver alloy. There is a lot more to silver alloys than wheather it has cad or not. I'm sensitive to the differances and they matter to me tremendously; if others perfer to stay away from cad they also choose to use a different material that has different other properties as well.
The actual thing to take reasonable caution with regarding use of Easy Flo 45 is that when handeling it one is technically exposed. I'm sure this is very minor and is nothing like breathing it, which one would have to work pretty hard at to accomplish. A simple handwashing is all it takes. Wash your hands before brazing to remove the flux from your hands from assembling the parts, braze, wash your hands again. It's as simple as that. Wash your hands, don't handle or eat food while working with silver, and don't wallow on the floor after brazing and you'll be safe. Easy Flo 45 was for everyone back in the day; apparently it's only for professionals these days. Whatever.
Be safe, build bike frames.
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA
>
> Greg Parker wrote:
> > The stuff I used when I built frames was EF45 (Easy-Flo 45%
> > Silver Brazing wire)
>
> Greg probably knows, but just in case anyone was thinking of buying some
> Easy-Flo 45 and starting in as a framebuilder, that filler contains Cadmium,
> a dangerous heavy metal. It sure does make the stuff braze nice, but there
> are some precautions you need to take to not breathe the fumes. Read up on
> it, and don't pooh-pooh the warnings - or just get a cad-free rod, which can
> braze just fine too.
>
> Mark Bulgier
> Seattle, Wa
> USA