You know you're a real engineer when you fire up the homemade vacuum induction furnace to avoid sending an email

I'm starting to lose track of how many times I've seen something on this channel that I would have thought was flat out unrealistic for anyone to be able to pull off in a home lab/shop. genuinely amazed

I've used this stuff. Got it from S-bond (you described their 220 alloy), which wasn't much of a hassle, though they sell it for $5/g. I didn't need much, so that part was fine. It's actually possible to brush it on with a hotplate, so I cheaped out and did that, although you need to clean up the surface afterward--I used a fly cutter on a milling machine. I was bonding glass to ceramic, so the thing that got me was the high yield/creep strength. One of the easy ways to cope with thermal expansion as you come down from the melting point of the solder is for the solder to creep a bit, but this stuff has a fine matrix of SnTi intermetallics which act as rigid reinforcement and prevent it from creeping easily. I had a strong alumina piece bonded to a glass piece with CTE 7-8. Everyone will tell you the CTE of alumina is 7-8 also, but that's averaged over either 0-500 of 0-1000 C. Over 20-100 C, the range relevant for this process, it's more like 4-5. So as the assembly cooled, the ceramic pulled the glass apart without debonding the solder; it's got some strength. We learned that we should have stuck with B33 glass (CTE 3.3 ppm/C), which we would have done if not for this red herring about the CTE of alumina. Glass is stronger in compression, so I think the active solder might have worked with a B33 glass part, but we went for a softer solder, and solved some of its problems for our application instead.

Really interesting stuff. I'm surprised your ultrasonic iron worked so easily just bolting stuff to the front of the transducer. When I've played with them they seemed really finicky about tuning and I think I burnt out two of those ebay driver boards. I guess being so overpowered means they don't have to be performing optimally to get the job done.

Chemical supply house: "wont sell to hobbists" Hobbyists: "Hold my vacuum induction furnace"

"An alloy that I made myself" -best channel on KZfaq

I freaking love this channel. The kinds of stuff that has been done on here is amazing and the fact it's being done in a garage is encouraging.

The Doctor would like his Sonic Screwdriver back when you‘re done with it.

I worked for the company which developed much of this ultrasonic joining technology, not requiring solder, which was then taken over by EWI. If you'd like to pursue this further and have specific technical questions feel free to reach out.

@ 3:30 ish. it might be helpful also to mention that this principle applies to iron/steel as well. A black iron oxide finish is often used to keep forged pieces from rusting, and a blued (oxide) finish is often used to protect firearms and other mechanical parts where a thicker oxide coating is not desired. These protective oxide coatings just typically don't form on their own like they do in copper.

Outstanding video with zero fluff, as usual. You brought attention to many people, myself included, of a technology of which there was near-zero awareness!

Super nice! It would be really, REALLY interesting to see this applied to high-vacuum glass-to-metal seals! Would make viewports and electrical feeds a breeze!

As always, an absolutely awesome video. I need to make myself an ultrasonic soldering iron now. Looking forward to the video making the active solder alloy

weld a glass box. like a fish tank sealed with silicone but a glass one soldered with that.

That's amazing! Ben, you come with the most fascinating ideas to check into and show us how you made work, I love it.

50 years ago a friend gave me a small tube of a special solder that was also a special alloy that did pretty much the same thing the ultrasonically applied solder does, but 'wetted' and reflowed well using a conventional Weller 60 watt soldering Iron. It was about the thickness and consistency of standard spooled 60/40 resin core tin lead solder and left no visible flux residue. It was coiled up in a plastic tube similar to the 'free' solder sample you often get when you purchase a new soldering iron. I didn't have much use for it at the time, but over the years I used it to solder things I would not normally have been able to solder; such as Nichrome wire (but not the part that could glow red hot), Aluminum, Stainless, etc..... My biggest use for it was repairing solar cells (which were extremely expensive back then, and were always round) It was the ONLY way for me to successfully reconnect broken tabs to the metalized glass on the back,. or to bridge over surface cracks in the tiny treelike pickup paths on the front surface of a cell. I never tried soldering to plain window glass. I never asked my friend for more of it because I still had some, and he passed away long ago. There was a name on the plastic container but I am in my mid 70's and can't remember that name now. I only mention this because you may be able to do some research to find who made it and what was in it now that you know that it did exist,........ at one point in history...

Dang it Ben, I’m trying to sleep! You can just post a video with that title, I’m gonna be up all night!

Ben: Easy do it yourself project! All you need is a small fusion reactor, 2 oz. of anti-mater and a sprinkle of Einstein Bose condensate. Now the condensate may be hard to find so we'll make that ourselves. Lol! Love you Ben :)

If I remember correctly, while researching how to desolder surface mount components, I found an article that stated that soldering iron tips will degrade over time in continuous use, and it's important to replace the tip every few months. Perhaps if you had converted a much better soldering iron, you may have been able to retain the tip being replaceable, thought I'm certain that would have made the conversion 10 times more difficult.

You're the most amazing and skillful maker on KZfaq, I'm just blown away by the things you do and your humble way to present. Great stuff, keep it up!

"You're not going to make a trailer hitch out of this" haha

New Applied Science! Today is a good day!

Very cool! This really simplifies the soldering process for a lot of metals. No more finding the special flux or technique for each metal!

Company: "Contact us for more details" He: "So I made it myself" hahahaha

I love that someone dissaproves of ultrasonic soldering.

This is awesome! I learned a lot from this video, as always. I had no idea that flux was used to remove the oxide layer. Thanks ben!

Unbelievable! You're a magician, on every single video of yours that I've watched. And I've watched most of them. Thanks Ben!

Blown away. Thanks for making it accessible, because it would have been out of my reach commercially!

Love to see a high speed microscopic view of the solder in action.

I think it could be interesting to test this procedure on bone and stones. They mostly consist of metal cations from the first two groups of the periodic table and the anions are different to those that you have already tested.

You raise the DIY bar for all of us Ben, thank you so much. I want to be you when I grow up (I'am 46 so don't hold your breath or anything).

You come up with more really cool applied physics than I see anywhere else. Every video you upload is a must watch.

I find this technique extremely interesting. Two things: 1. would love to see more on your process of making the solder, and 2. would like to see tests bonding aluminum foils to copper wires, as that could be handy in thin circuit prototypes. Great video! Thanks!

wow thats great stuff... I dont think ill build my own iron but before this vid i didnt even know this tech existed. Something to stash away in the brain box for someday when i have exotic bonding needs ;-) ... Thanks!

I keep coming back to this one while waiting for the next bit of content from Ben. Great stuff and always eager for more!

Wow! This is amazing, I never knew this kind of soldering/joining existed. I'm absolutely fascinated.

I had that exact "solder-ate-the-tip" phenomena on a cheap-ass solderstation. Happened with lead-free solder and a really hot temperature (the solderstation temp regulator was exceptionally useless). Felt like it was similar to what gallium does to aluminium.

smartest man that has a youtube channel. change my damn mind

This Information was very helpful to me. I use indium solder to bond silicon sputter targets. Ultrasonic soldering techniques dramatically improved my process. Thanks!

i don't know anything about stir welding, and i know it is different than this, but this video is making me realize it would be great to learn about it from your channel! thanks again for another great video.

Ben: The ultrasonic soldering iron is really easy to make. Me: Cool I can built that. Ben: But the ultrasonic solder I created in my vaccum induction furnace. Me: 😵

Incredible stuff! Every video of yours never fails to blow me away. By the way, I can almost guarantee that the erosion of the tip is simply due to the horrifically cheap quality of that iron. I bought the exact same one a while ago and it shocked me how quickly the tip fell apart, honestly the worst iron I've ever used.

It absolutely makes sense for the commercial solders to contain zirconium. It is even more active than titanium, to the point that it can react with superheated steam to form hydrogen and zirconium dioxide.

Love the subtle FU’s to “the man” in your videos!

Any chance of being able to make a vacuum tight connection on glass? For instance making various tubes or apparatus?

"Oh yeah it's super easy! You just need this, this, this, that, this, that, and this!" - Ben, 20xx

Very cool. In a rather large tangent to what you tried with the carbon, Robert Murray-Smith did recently do a bit of experimenting with aluminium brazing rods, and managed to get a decent bond between some Grafoil and aluminium. Obviously not a chemical bond, but it may be a relatively straightforward way to mechanically do that.

I bought all of the equipment to do this a couple years ago but several concerns stopped me from finishing the project. I had no way of determine the amount of ultrasonic power I was emitting. I didn't want to damage my or my dog's hearing. I did some research but did not come up with any way to test this without the risk. I also had some concerns about exposure to my hand. There are a couple of stories online about guys who put their hands in ultrasonic parts cleaners only to have their bones disintegrate. While this seems unlikely it is the case that ultrasonic cell disruptors are a real things used to homogenize tissue samples in biology. My approach to protecting my hand was going to be using layers of different density materials to provide essentially mismatched impedance. To reduce the radiation into the air I was going to turn a horn. I know that it would not be very well tuned but the hope was that I could increase the efficiency substantially so that I could reduce the power needed. One thing that you may be interested in is a way to control the power. Hoping to mitigate these concerns I showed the power supply to an EE friend with a lot of experience in RF. I offered to draw out the circuit (never fun but very doable in this case) but he just looked at it and drew the circuit in a couple minutes. He proceeded to explain which components to change to make the power adjustable. He even explained what would ultimately limit the range and how to address those issues. Did you have anybody these concerns?

try dissolving the solder off the glass slide with acid to see if the soldering processes actually etches the glass

When this guy says "pretty advanced stuff", you know it's out of your league :p

The complete gamut of tech and engineering , with fundamentals included . Superb . An university by itself .

you are the smartest science /tech / engineer I know. So many areas of practical knowledge combined

The sites mention BiSn solder as "active" - have you tried those?

This is a pretty amazing project. Nitinol on pcb gave me all sorts of ideas for a Carl Bugeja-type project. Someone just needs to find a distributor for the solder, i ain't got time for alchemy. Did you per chance try using the 'soldering iron' for ultrasonic welding of plastics? Might be a nice secondary use.

Very cool indeed Ben. I.m going to build this project. I looked at buying an ultrasonic soldering iron and they are way too expensive at around $7000.00 US. Looking forward to the next video.

I appreciate your teaching. I know that I probably will never use this wonderfully detailed information. Keep up these nifty videos!

You come up with great ideas for videos.

aluminum welds to glass in a vacuum chamber. i had a guy re-aluminize my primary & secondary telescope mirrors he made is own vacuum chamber machine with a titanium filament & aluminum foil from walmart can do up to 17" research grade polished mirrors. he had to use a acid to remove what was left of the old it was well embedded in the glass and i could'nt get it off

i don't care what you're planning to do, just do more of it, every single video on this channel is awesome!

yo dude. i just found your channel. and i have learned more in the last 2 hours than i have in the last 2 months. i learned how u can make a water cutting machine out of a simple pressure washer. i learned how u can drill holes in any conductive metallic object, how you can put holograms in chocolate, there was one video about a glass pump that i did not understand (way above my level of intelligence) but it made funny lights happen at the end so it was cool. and i learned about the internals of an x-ray gun. oh and also that if you pull tape fast enuf it produces x rays. like wtf epic dude. thanks for the content man i love this kinda stuff.

"will solder to anything" *Looks over at cat*

“The problem is we live in an oxygen atmosphere, here.” Damn.

I'm a beginner (barely in anything) but I understood everything. It's very clear and well illustrated, thank you very much!

Absolutely love your channel and content. Just as a random suggestion, I work in a laboratory which does cancer research, and I would love to see any ideas you may have on future videos having to do with genetics/genetic engineering/bio-lab subject matter. Thank you for all you do! :)

Water cooled and induction heated tip for the next version?

12:38 did you just reveal their exact recipe??? XD XRF guns are magic

I bout the same soldering iron and the same happened to me just from using it in ordinary soldering work. Probably a reflection of the price. Thank you for sharing your insight! Very interesting

Incredible details and research went into this unassuming video. Much appreciated man.✌

Awesome video as usual. You asked for suggestions for applications, I might have one: would it be possible to make an hermetically sealed metal feed through in glass or ceramics in this way? For example by applying the ultrasonic energy to a copper tube from one side while inside a hole in a glass plate and at the same time heating it from the other end and applying the solder? Metal seals are known to be completely hermetic to moisture / gasses and this technique would be very useful in vacuum systems for making a quick hermetic feed-through.

Next week: "This project requires Helium3. Fortunately, I already built a short-range wormhole generator that allows me to collect some from the far side of the moon."

I found out today that old air-cooled engines have parts cast from magnesium. After some research I found that is easier said than done. There was almost no information on anyone having successfully performed that DIY. For light and strong metals with excellent heat dispersion properties, magnesium looks really good.

Hi! Can't wait to see the furnace. I am working on one myself but there are some gotchas I have still to figure out. Great vid! Regards, Etna.

Very interesting stuff. Have you tried putting the substrate on the ultrasonic module and just use a normal soldering iron?

Have you tried using this for glass-to-metal seals for vacuum stuff? Would be REALLY handy!

WHY HAVE PEOPLE DISLIKED THIS? Everything Ben does is amazing. If you don't like it, don't watch it.

Such a joy to watch this channel!

"I wonder what Ben's been up to..." *Uploaded 3 minutes ago.*

Ben, I genuinely need to thank you so much for this video. I had never seen this technique before, and it's so simple. I wish I had seen this 4 years ago when I was working on a research project that required soldering to doped silicon -- we ended up using this weird proprietary compound called nickelex instead, and it was a disaster and our contact quality sucked, and this was despite the fact that said compound was 1% HF acid. This is so much simpler and safer... I'd be really really curious to see if you get good ohmic contacts across silicon oxide -- if you could do a quick IV sweep to check I'd be /extremely/ grateful. I'm also really curious if that silicon wafer holds up to a post-solder anneal, and if it improves the contact quality at all. Again, thank you so much for this!

I found it fascinating having studied welding and metallurgy many years ago. I was asking myself how they actually manufacture the produce the complex alloy solder without corrupting the ratios of metals in the process.

I landed on your video by accident, but found it absolutely fascinating. Thanks nmuch for sharing.

Question: will the 1% gallium in the active solder react adversely with aluminum surfaces? (Or is it in such small dilution, that it has no real effect on aluminum surfaces?)

I wonder if the solder is bonding to the graphite, but the flaky surface is just giving way under low load.

I was going to ultrasonic solder my hand to a famous gallery painting, but I caught the end of the vid. Thanks for the interesting info.

Tees active soldering alloys are very interesting! I like the idea of playing around myself but I don't have the equipment to do small batches! I imagine a tin lead silver gallium alloy would stick quite well

Very interesting! Can you tin a surface with active solder, then use regular solder to connect to the tinned area? Perhaps you could use PWM to decrease the ultrasonic power? Is your soldering tip made of aluminium? Gallium would dissolve it (although maybe not when alloyed). ITO would normally be bonded to by first masking and using PVD to add Ti-Au bonding pads. That's how we did it, anyway.

Can you make a circuit board on a pane of glass with this ? I tried to use “copper mirror” chemical reactions for ages and it didn’t work.

Very cool how you used the hard ceramics tube insulators. Even some of us non-scientists appreciate that.

Amazing video as always! Really looking forward to seeing how you make the solder :).

How do they even come up with stuff like this? Such an obscure process, where did they even start?

I really appreciated the depth of knowledge you shared so easily. Thank you, subbed ofcourse!

Amazing! Love your videos, always learn a ton! Thank you!!!

Cool!

"Nooo you can't just use sound to bond materials together!" "Haha ultrasound go brrrrrrrr"

I wondered about this when i was trying to make vacuum feedthroughs years ago. very interesting to see it done!

Wow - thanks Ben! Another superb educational video.

But can I use it to bond with my girlfriend?

You need at least a mili-paul of flux

What a fantastic video! Very effective delivery

Ah yes, another awesome technology that us mortals can only dream of having access to, and indeed wouldn't even know about without this guy spilling the beans.

Lol “sodder”.