Silver lining on copper ring

[Rach]

Hi, Can anyone help? I have been making copper rings with a silver lining and I´m having problems attaching the lining to the copper. Its okay when I make spinning rings as the fluting out keeps everything in place, but on straight forward bands I am struggling. I have done it but with difficulty! if I make the two rings separately then put them together, then try and solder the edge, the copper ring sometimes shrinks and I then have to cut both rings (at the same time) and resolder. I have soldered the copper and silver sheet together first, making the lining 4mm shorter, then making the ring and soldering the both together at one time, this is ok, but I would prefer to make the two separatly and sucessfully!! what am I doing wrong? or how do you guys do it? I have search for a thread on here about lining rings but can´t find one, nor can I find anything on the internet to help!! Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long winded question!!

[ps_bond]

If you're happy with a mechanical fit, you can flare the inner ring with a couple of doming punches either side which will lock the ring in place. Make sure the inner is a snug fit first. As to why you'd see shrinkage on the inner ring, I'm not sure - are you annealing after rounding the ring up?

However... Be aware that what you are creating is a small battery, and there's a lot of variation in people's skin chemistry (and what they'll happily stick their hands into) - you may find your rings get hit by electrolytic corrosion. I've seen it with copper/silver mokume - and I've heard of some cases where the corrosion has been so bad that the ring is trashed inside of 6 months!

[Rach]

thanks so much for answering. It never occured to me that there may be a problem with electrolytic corrosion - I very naively assumed as sterling silver contained copper the two would be perfectly okay together, so I´m going to have to look into that further, because that sounds dreadful! So you definately don´t thinks it a good idea to mix the two in jewellery? ( by the way it´s the outer ring that sometimes shrinks).

Rach

[ps_bond]

It isn't guaranteed that there will be a problem, it's just one of those things to be aware of & make a judgement on. I tend to turn down requests for copper/silver mokume rings as I've seen some of the results when it does show up. The quotes for coloured gold mokume are good to watch people's reactions though

[Dennis]

I take it that you are making two rings which fit together closely, but you find that after soldering one inside the other the resulting compound ring is too small.

This is easily remedied if you have access to a ring stretcher. Be gentle with the lever, because it is easy to overdo it and keep checking with your ring stick.
You also need to rotate the ring to keep it round and turn it over once or twice to avoid a cone shape.

In fact I size all my rings by making them a little too small and then stretching them. This also makes them round and avoids a great deal of hammering. Dennis.

[Rach]

thanks for letting me know, it´s good to be aware of these things!

[Rach]

Hi Dennis

thanks for helping me! I would love a ring stretcher but I don´t have one! or access to one either as I live in rural Spain.The sizing isn´t the problem though, it´s
when I soldering together of the outer ring and the lining. Not quite sure whether it´s best to do it before making the rings when it´s flat sheet or make the two rings -snug fit and try and solder them after - this is when I´ve encountered problems. I´ll keep on experimenting and will eventually figure it out!!
Rach

[Goldsmith]

Hi Dennis

thanks for helping me! I would love a ring stretcher but I don´t have one! or access to one either as I live in rural Spain.The sizing isn´t the problem though, it´s
when I soldering together of the outer ring and the lining. Not quite sure whether it´s best to do it before making the rings when it´s flat sheet or make the two rings -snug fit and try and solder them after - this is when I´ve encountered problems. I´ll keep on experimenting and will eventually figure it out!!
Rach

Rach, if I was making such a ring I would solder a strip of ring width silver onto a wider strip of copper, wider so that I could lay silver solder alongside the strip of silver on a flat surface of copper. Then when it was soldered I would cut off the extra copper widths from each side before shaping the ring.
I hope this makes sense.
James

[Rach]

Wow, that is a great idea, totally makes sense! I´ll give that a go this afternoon if I get a chance, thanks James. Sorry to everyone for my lack of knoweledge but I´ve only been working with silver for a couple of years and I´m self taught!( via the net) as I said earlier I live in the back of beyond in Spain where there isn´t a great deal apart from olive trees...

Rach