Hi a little advice please? I've been using gilding metal to create an elipse shaped tube (two pieces swaged and stick soldered together). my first attempt resulted in a bit of a mess solder wouldn't run for what felt like forever and then the bindingwire fused to the metal and I noticed the one soldered edge was very ragged... could thIs be overheating the borax do you think?
My second attempt was better but the binding wire welded to the metal again... how do I prevent this? Would using a thicker wire prevent this? I think mine is 2 mm ... should I buy a reel of 4mm?
The solder not flowing assuming everything is clean an fresh, is usually due to the torch not being big enough.
You do not mention what grade solder you were using, but medium solder is sometimes reluctant to flow, so many of us don't use it.
As for binding wire sticking, I think that is inevitable, because it touches the joints. Stainless steel is a little more resistant to solder sticking, but the real answer is to use a gentle clamp as devised by James Miller. You can use stainless steel strips to make these, but titanium strips are also on sale for this.
Ha, I was about to go to bed when I thought of an alternative. Imagine the seam as horizontal, then you can use binding wire lengthwise (top and bottom) to avoid touching solder. Notches at each end would stop the wire slipping off. Dennis.
Vanessa, Have you tried using small squares of solder placed along the seam rather than stick soldering. If you make sure that the soldering edge is clean, use a file along each surface before adding borax, then place some boraxed squares of thin solder at even distances along one side of the surface, then use a few of the clamps that Dennis showed to hold the two pieces together with the thin solder squares sandwiched between the two sides. Then heat the whole piece gently with a soft flame bringing the temperature of the whole piece up to the solder flow temperature and if all goes well the solder will flow and the clamps will close the two halves together when the solder flows, and you should get a clean solder line.
One reason that gilding metal is not perfect for stick soldering is the fact that it oxidises quite quickly and oxidising stops neat solder flow, one reason to try and get the solder to flow all at once.
I hope this all makes sense.
Thanks everyone. We are using hard solder and the technique they (the tutor) wants us to learn is stick soldering and we are given the metal to use, in this case gilding metal. I can solder it using pallions easily (did that at home) and thought that's cheating and as I want to learn went and made another one actually stick soldered it at the school (think my torch isn't big enough at home) and had issues with the binding wire and found the task of stick soldering frustrating. I had thought about applying the binding wire lengthways but did the otherway as was demonstrated to us. I soldered together everything else really nicely using pallions as I've done many times before commencing the course at home (square (doing this one again as not very square at all now I'm looking at it) spheres of various spherical and flying saucer shape). I just want to get these basics right. I think I will try out those titanium clamps youve suggested them to me before when I welded my soldering tweezers to a piece I was making before. Anyway I'm waffling on... thanks again everyone.
Ragged edge on soldered join
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