Soldering cufflinks???

[Silver Leaves]

I wonder if anyone can help me? I have been asked to make some cufflinks, but I'm having trouble soldering them. I have the assembled cufflinks that cookson sell. I've been fluxing the back of the decorative part and the base of the cufflink, putting a pillion of easy solder on the back and heating the decorative part then lowering the cufflink onto it as the solder melts, but as soon as I put it in the pickle the back drops off. Also as the flux bubbles the solder slides around and then isn't in the correct place.
I would really, really appreciate any advice on this.

[bustagasket]

:welcome:Welcome to the boards. I am afraid i am a novice and am unable to help you, but there are a lot of very experienced people checking the boards all the time so i am sure someone will soon have a proper suggestion for you.

In the meantime please dont me shy and keep posting :D:Y:

[MuranoSilver]

Both parts have to be touching and heated for the solder to make its bond
are you allowing the cufflink part to heat too?

The front part - is it PMC by any chance?
If it is you might need to use more solder as PMC is quite porus....
also heavily burnish the area (which will help the bond too)

nic x

[Silver Leaves]

Thank you Nic, yes the front is PMC, I wasn't sure when to lower the cufflink down and how much heat to use so as not to damage the pin. I did think about getting the ones that weren't assembled but wasn't sure how to put them together

Thank you
Nicola

[Silver Leaves]

Thank you Julie, I did file that bit off, but I'm new to soldering so there must be something I'm doing wrong

[julie]

Thank you Julie, I did file that bit off, but I'm new to soldering so there must be something I'm doing wrong

i deleted my message to write another as i've never soldered cuff links to pmc i haven't done much with pmc ..

[Solunar Silver Studio]

i deleted my message to write another as i've never soldered cuff links to pmc i haven't done much with pmc ..

Hi Silver Leaves...:welcome:...to the forum!! I thought you might be a bit psychic for a moment there!! - until Julie explained:-D.

I've not attempted cufflinks yet so you are one up on me!! I hope you get them to work now you've had all this advice...I'll file it all away for later!!:)

[MuranoSilver]

This is what I do for my fine silver (PMC/ACS) fronts onto the Cooksons cuff link mechanisms.

1) File off the little bump so you have nice flat contact (thanks Julie for reminding us of that step :Y:)
2) Burnish the area on the PMC that you'll be attaching the cuff link too
3) (If using paste) Blob paste onto the cuff link finding
3b) (If using Pallions) Clean and flux both pieces and the solder pallions
4) Hold cuff link finding onto cuff link with cross-locking tweezers (at an angle where you won't burn yourself while heating the piece)
4b) (If using Pallions) put solder pallions at join point
5) Aim the heat at the block around the fine silver cuff link gradually bringing the heat more onto the cuff link. Don't aim the heat onto the solder itself until the the fine silver is hot. The solder tends to melt when the fine silver is around the Salmon red colour.
6) Remove heat when the solder flows BUT hold the cuff link back in place as the solder will still be fluid until the metal cools a bit.
7) Pickle & polish as normal
Nic x

[Silver Leaves]

Thank you so much Nic, I think I need to get some of those tweezers so I don't burn myself and I'll give it another go :)

Thank you for all your welcomes I'll definitely be back again.

[caroleallen]

Another little tip that I learned the hard way is lock the tweezers over the 2 upright posts rather than the top bit which is hollow and the tweezers will dent it once it gets hot.

[Charlotte]

Lol, this is going to sound utterly stupid, but I never thought to file the little bump off, so I punch a hole in the cufflink top... although this does keep the whole thing central#-o

[Silver Leaves]

Thank you Carole, I'll remember that.
Nicola

[Maddie106]

I've done a bit of experimenting with soldering Sterling onto PMC.
Like MuranoSilver sez, you need a lot more solder, because the PMC is porous.

If you polish with a magnetic polisher, make sure you netralise any acid from your pickle by soaking the piece in a bicarb solution before polishing it. Otherwise, the residual acid will copper-plate your silver!!
I found this out to my cost #-o

[Jasmin]

I did my first set of pmc/sterling cufflinks today and I didn't want to pickle them because the last time I pickled an item with a hidden steel spring, the spring died and all the items turned pink! What's your experience of this - do you pickle the complete cufflink?

Also, I have to say that even though I was careful not to put too much heat on the cufflink mechanism itself, the little end caps that cover the spring came off and I had to glue them back in - was it still too much heat that made them come apart? The spring seems to have been unaffected.

Thank you oh experienced ones...

Jasmin

[impressions]

Hi everyone, I am having trouble with the solder situation! I am trying to solder cuff links, am using the cookson gold ones and following Munrosilvers video to a tee (or so I thought....) but the backs just fall off! What do you think is going wrong? I am using solder paste, am not heating the finding but lowering it onto the solder on the silver clay piece as per the video. The solder is def 'flowing' when I put the 2 bits together. HELP!!! Should I be heating the finding and link together and in place? Or is super glue the best option and then leave the country before the customer realises.......

My pieces are now starting to look messy and I am unsure what to do to recover them - do I file the left on solder off before I start again? And on that note how do I 'tidy' up the solder once they are attached (assuming I manage it). ;(