Quote: (Originally Posted by
hoppyinca)
there has to be some kind of soldering/ brazing/ welding on the female side of the VCO fittings.
It's silver solder. Trust me here.... we used hundreds of the VCO fittings to build the Viking Piper Sat complex (I did the soldering...). There is so little solder visible that you would swear the fittings were not brazed, but they are. Originally, there is a tiny ring of solder placed down the fitting, then the tube is installed, and then the thing is heated with a torch. Fluxing is critical. Just as good a job can be done by PROPERLY cleaning the tube and fitting, PROPERLY fluxing, assembling the parts, heating with a torch (oxy-acetelene- it needs to be HOT), and then flowing in REAL silver solder.
If one fails--- it was poorly done. I would *not* TIG weld the replacement. I would *properly silver solder* it. That's the MILSPEC and it works *just as well on the Mark-15 as it does in spaceflight hardware*.....
If it's done right, there will be very little evidence of solder. If you look at any of the factory VCO fittings you'll see a metal radius where the tube enters the fitting... that radius is the visible solder.
Dave