Soldering

[Sandra]

Soldering so far seems to be my weak point! Today I soldered a couple pieces of metal together using medium strip solder and it turned out ok, though I see I missed an area. I have a bit of a problem keeping those little silver solder pieces from flying away!

My next pieces to solder on the same piece I used an easy silver solder paste. After three times of soldering and ending up with a very weak join that broke with the slightest resistance I've quit for the night. I've never used solder paste before and not quite sure what to make of it. Is it supposed to get the liquid look the same as solder strip? It never really seemed to and I had it under fire for what seemed too long. Tomorrow I am going to put a blob of solder paste on a scrap piece of metal uncovered and hit it with a torch to see how it reacts and how long it takes.

Are there other options for soldering delicate areas that are appropriate such as a soldering iron maybe?

[caroleallen]

As long as your join is good, you should find that paste solder works in the same way and you get the same "flash". I only use it when I'm soldering something onto something else like a gold heart onto a ring where it's difficult to use a pallion. I also use it when soldering small things like jump rings. It's just as strong as strip solder.

[Sandra]

What could I be doing wrong that my joins aren't holding? Is it possible I am overheating it? I figured too much heat must be better than not enough but maybe not. And then I'm never quite sure what the best way to clean the metal prior to soldering. I've tried sanding with fine paper, pickled, used mineral spirits, sometimes washing up liquid but haven't decided what actually works. Maybe there was a residue on the metal?

[caroleallen]

Maybe you're trying too hard. As long as you have 2 closely fitting pieces (hold the join up to the light and if you can see daylight through the gap, you need to resaw the join) you only really have to give the pieces a quick rub with a bit of wet and dry (I don't normally bother) and they're ready to solder. I never do anything to actually wash the pieces, it's just not necessary.

When you heat the piece, do you make sure the whole piece is hot before you direct the flame onto the join?

[Dennis]

Hi Sandra, At the moment you seem to be stuck, but as Carole has said there is no need to wash anything. The pieces to be joined need to be freshly cut, or filed, or rubbed up with an abrasive pad, or a retractable glass brush, so that they are bright.

That said, traces of pickle tend to inhibit soldering, so that needs to be rinsed away thoroughly.

Beginners are attracted to solder paste, partly because it has its own flux and seems easy to use. In fact I find it extremely tricky and have often been let down by it. It is particularly prone to burn to a cinder instead of flowing, if the soldering flame hits it before the whole piece is upto temperature.

As for medium strip solder, most of us shun it as an invention of the devil, because it tends to trickle instead of flowing. That leaves hard and easy solder strip and in some circumstances extra easy.

Then there is solder flying off which is a matter of applying the heat very gently at first, until the borax has expanded (flowered) and collapsed again. I you find yourself impatient with this, you can recruit a hairdryer to do this part for you. Actually a number of us use Auflux/Auroflux, which comes as a liquid and is less prone to swell up.

Please note the the same grade can be used more than once consecutively, because it will only re-melt next at a higher temperature.

Soft solder (and soldering irons) can be used for non precious metals, but is not of hallmarking quality, and traces of it can contaminate a bench and your tools, making it a no no near precious metals.

Please keep asking until you succeed. Dennis.

[Sandra]

Oh thanks to both of you, I know what I am doing wrong now! I am definitely getting too anxious and hitting the piece with a direct fame too quickly. I also used pickle prior to soldering the last few times.
I chose medium solder at the time because I wasn't sure which to order so thought the middle one was safest. I really do not like the solder paste though. My next purchase is going to have to be easy solder strips and borax. I'm trying my hardest to finish a piece for the October competition but am still learning as I go along so it's slow going!

[CJ57]

Oh thanks to both of you, I know what I am doing wrong now! I am definitely getting too anxious and hitting the piece with a direct fame too quickly. I also used pickle prior to soldering the last few times.
I chose medium solder at the time because I wasn't sure which to order so thought the middle one was safest. I really do not like the solder paste though. My next purchase is going to have to be easy solder strips and borax. I'm trying my hardest to finish a piece for the October competition but am still learning as I go along so it's slow going!

Hi Sandra
If you have to solder more than once I would start with hard solder and then use easy for your second. As Dennis has already said warm up your whole piece to get your flux to either bubble or settle down, if you don't heat it too hard then your solder pallions should stay in place, if they pop off, then just move your torch away and put them back in place. The other option is to warm your piece, then add your pallions which I also brush with auflux, that way the flux sort of binds the pallions to where you want them to be. I would say that the cleaning and detergent will be adding a skin when you really want to be giving a light rub with emery to make sure everything is clean and a good surface to solder together. Once you get the hang of it you might even enjoy it :)

[mizgeorge]

I love paste - and because I have to work quickly because of the sheer volume of stuff I produce, I use it almost exclusively now. Heat the metal, not the solder, and don't be afraid to get things really hot. My prep for soldering consists of cutting, filing if necessary and no more, other than trying not to get too many oily fingerprints on the metal. I can't remember the last time I used medium solder of any type, though, as like Dennis, I loathe the stuff.

I'd always recommend having a bit of a play with deliberately melting some bits of metal so you can get a real feel for just how far you can go before it will melt, and to see what happens just beforehand.

[caroleallen]

It also depends on what you're soldering and what sort of torch you're using.

[Goldsmith]

The others have mostly covered your questions with good ideas. I agree with them that medium silver solder is not great. I manage with just hard and easy.
Let me say how I solder. I use a borax cone and borax plate for flux. I have a scraper which is used to clean the solder strips before cutting off pallions, a lot of people clean the solder joint but never think to clean the solder.
Now for soldering, I file each surface clean then apply borax with a paint brush to each surface before closing and securing the solder joint shut. Then I gently heat the item so that the borax bubbles and sets, then I pick up the cut solder pallion (square) with tweezers and dip it into the liquid borax, then when I hold it on the heated solder join it sizzles and sticks where I want it. Then gently heat the whole item bringing te whole item's heat up to near the solder running temperature, only then will I concentrate the heat on the solder join, remember that the solder will run towards the hottest point, so for instance when soldering a ring joint, heat from the opposite side to where the solder piece is attached, a fierce flame is not needed for silver soldering.
I was always taught that the method of good soldering is to heat the solder area on the metal up to the melting point of the solder, rather than just trying to melt the solder.
Sorry to go on but something like soldering is hard to explain in words, it is something that needs to be demonstrated.

James

[Dennis]

This thread is becoming a resource for beginners and I hope others will join in. What is striking is that like George you can get to use paste solder successfully and even prefer it for your particular needs.

What James did not mention and I hope he will not mind my adding, is that he taught me to cut long parallel slots in strip solder with a saw, before snipping into pallions. This is an altogether superior method for getting even sized pieces which can be picked up with tweezers.

In case you don't know this,as it is rarely mentioned, most people also thin down strip solder before use, by rolling or hammering, so that it is easier to snip. Dennis.

[caroleallen]

What's great about jewellery making is that there's no right or wrong way, just your way. I thin down my solder and then use side cutters to snip off tiny bits.

[Goldsmith]

I forgot to mention that Dennis, thanks. I looked through my old photos and found these ones, as I think photos can sometimes explain better than words.
These are photos of the process of soldering a bezel to a backplate.

531853195320

James

[CJ57]

I was pretty much trying to explain as James did,he just does it so much better and I forgot to add clean and flux the solder. I cut up the length of the solder , especially hard because it's wider, with my snips rather than sawing and then cut off small bits.

[donnie]

Hi Sandra, What a great wealth of information in this thread, I changed to Auflux and would not go back to Borax a small bottle lasts for ever. The only thing I could add to the thread would be always keep the torch on the move even if you want to concentrate on the joint, still make small movements with the torch. Silver gets a sort of shine on it when its just about to melt, so as George said take some scrap pieces beyond soldering temp. and see this change. Best of luck.

DONNIE




www.silver-n-things.co.

[Sandra]

So much great & valuable advice here, thank you everyone because it helps more than you know!

[caroleallen]

Did you get it to work Sandra?

[silvermagpie]

Solder........Easy or Medium (or both)?

Afternoon all!,
i've been using Medium solder paste for most of my Jewellery-making.
But wondered if i should switch to Easy.
I haven't had any big problems with Medium paste to be fair, but i feel that my more delicate pieces seem to be over-soldered/i.e too much heat, if you get my meaning?
My actual question is, will Easy solder be suitable for most things (light-mediumweight, i don't make heavy or very chunky pieces) or will i still need to use Medium as well?
Thanks in advance!

[Dennis]

It is possible that you are having to heat your work unduly, because medium solder is reluctant to flow, though I don't know about paste. Personally I would use strip solder with Auflux/Auroflux and start with the hard.

If your work shows signs of overheating, it might also be because you are using too fierce a flame. With some torches it is possible to close the air hole a little so that the flame is softer. Also as mentioned above, you should keep the flame moving about so that it just licks the piece.

As you go down the solders, the colour match is not as good and they are slightly less strong.If you were to start with easy solder and have three or more soldering operations to perform, you don't have much in reserve.

There is extra easy solder, but it can show a little and is sometimes a bit weak if, for example you have to hang a pendant, or solder brooch fittings. Also, I'm not sure whether it comes as paste. Dennis.

[mizgeorge]

I only use hard and easy. Hard actually flows better than medium IMO, and I use this as a first option for multi-part pieces, or for those where I'm particularly concerned about the solder colour. For everything else, I use easy.

[Sandra]

Ok I hope my questions aren't getting tiring, but I'm here with a few more! I have gone back to some of the posts here more than once to reread the advice and it is very helpful but I'm still unsure about some things.

If using solder paste, do you spread the back of the piece to be soldered as if buttering bread or just place blobs of it about? And when soldering small round silver balls, I try to file one side flat but if using strip solder, it's almost impossible to get the ball to sit on top of the pallions so I place it alongside the ball which seems to mostly work out ok. Is this the best way?

I've practiced heating silver to watch it melt and practiced soldering scrap pieces. I've learned I was heating my metal too rapidly in most cases. I still continue to have issues with solder paste though, seems it either crumbles into nothing or it's not heated enough and the solder breaks off during pickling. I'd like to get the hang of it though for soldering small detailed pieces together. Strangely my practice pieces using solder paste worked out great, though I used what felt like too much paste in order to watch how it worked better. Maybe I am not using enough paste on my real projects?

Current experimental piece I'm working on contains many small silver balls and wires soldered to a flat piece of silver. I used an easy strip solder on some bits and easy solder paste on other bits and soldered it all at the same time. The bits that were soldered with paste fell off in the pickle pot and the bits soldered with strip stayed on. It is getting pretty frustrating actually. Now I will need to resolder the bits that fell off and hope I don't ruin the previously soldered parts.

[Goldsmith]

Sandra,
I would not advise that you used both solder and solder paste on the same job. Although they may be both labelled as easy, if you check the melting range temperatures the easy paste solder can melt at temperatures as low as 550C and the soldid easy solder melts at about 705C which is probably why the parts you used paste on came off. I would advise that you get used to solid solders, if you ave multiple solderings do some with hard and then some with easy. You will find that hard solder does not run much on second heatings. As for holding silver balls in place on top of pallions how about making yourself some small clamps to hold them in place while soldering. Like this one I made to demonstrate the many uses of soldering clamps. I never use solder paste because I like to see the amount of solder I am using on a job.

5359

James

[Wallace]

I will of course echo all that Jim has said.

I will add though, that you can melt tiny pallions onto the balls, heat up the metal and put the little balls on the metal. Hard solder works well for nearly all requirements, but over the years, I have come to love soldering and will now use easy in my work too. Must be a confidence thing if you are self taught and a apprentice thing if under tutelage.

I still tend to used clamps made from steel cotter pins, as they work for me, although I am more adept at sawing when my neck allows me to and may tackle some from flat sheet steel, pain free permitting!

of all the techniques, soldering is one of the hardest to learn, but using pallions rather than paste will change how you do what you do and make it easier to learn. It is also infinitely cheaper in the long run too. Seeing the solder run when you hit the orange glow is very satisfying.

[LydiaNiz]

PRactice makes perfect - I love m'soldering too now.
I'm another hard user by choice, I use the easy paste for ear pins or soldering small jump rings or chain links.
I love my borax though, and can't get along with auflux.
Like others have said, I've found practice at heating the metal and getting a feel for warming the whole piece up before rocking across any join is the key. Good luck and stick with it!

[Dennis]

For soldering balls, I would prefer to make a little cup in the sheet, with a round burr for the ball to rest in and add a tiny nib cut from strip solder, tucked into the crevice on one side, as you have mentioned.
Now the secret is to apply heat gradually from the opposite side, because solder will melt and run towards the heat.

As for adding a flat piece to the top of another flat piece, that is best done by sweat soldering. Turn the top piece over, clean, flux and distribute pallions (little pieces of of strip solder) evenly over it. Then heat until the solder only just melts.

Let it cool (no need to pickle). Turn it the right way up onto the clean fluxed piece you will fix it onto, and re-heat. when you see a line of solder shimmering all round the edges, you are done. I should mention that if the lower edges of the top piece are lightly bevelled first, the solder will be deterred from running out.

Dennis.

[TeeDee]

Hello Sandra,
I'm a newcomer to the forum and relatively new to the craft so I don't feel I'm qualified to give advice as such.
I can say however that one thing that has helped me with my soldering particularly with small joints, was to purchase a couple of very fine artists brushes for putting the flux exactly where I want it. Its probably no substitute for a properly prepared and heated joint but my success rate has improved, seemingly with less solder travelling in the wrong directions!
Sizes 2/0 and 4/0 are what I use for both borax and auflux.
If you get nylon bristles (such as Polar white) and keep them clean they are also excellent for fine detail oxidising with Platinol as the bristles don't rot
Hope this may be useful
Tim

[Sandra]

Back with more soldering questions grrrr! I used hard silver solder strip for the first time today and soldered a joint (for a rim to go around a pendant) and worked great. I have spent the last few hours trying to solder my rim to a piece of silver sheet using hard silver solder again. I outlined my pendant with a marker on the silver sheet after filing the surface nice and smooth, painted borax paste with a brush and carefully layed my bits of solder all around the edge of my drawn outline.

My solder will just not melt and I don't know why. I tried heat from the top and also from the bottom. My Proxxon torch is set at its highest setting. I am working in a room that's not really heated so it's a little cold. It wasn't bad earlier but I just had to call it a night as it was getting too cold. Could the cold cause my solder not to heat to temperature? Another factor I am curious about is the can of butane I refilled with today, it's just a can from the pound shop. Swan brand I think. Is there a difference between butanes? Ugh I am so frustrated.

By the way, my husband asked what I wanted for Christmas, I answered jewellery making lessons!

[Wallace]

A quick tip on soldering silver - all the metal needs to have a soft orange glow all at the same time to encourage the solder to flow. It may take a while to get there, and the bigger the item, the longer it will of course take. You want to take it past a cherry red, as this is not yet too hot and will not encourage the solder to stay balled up. Having said that, at cherry red and with your soldering pick you can push the solder to the metal and it should just do an instant melt when you hit orange. It is not advisable though as this is close to the point of the silver melting itself. Keeping the flame moving around the whole piece with silver is important to ensure the metal gets to the right temp. You can heat it onto a dark red in silver, but at this point be very careful as it is near it's own melting point. With gold, you can concentrate on the area that needs to be soldered.

Have you thought about making a little house from some soldering bricks? They retain the heat and will help with getting the temp needed for your piece. Your torch can get a helping hand by retaining the heat in other ways. Another alternative is the 'soldering wig' lots of coiled binding wire on a metal plate that has a long handle. This works well on the piece, but you need to wear eye protection as the glare from the binding wire is not healthy for your eyes. I wear tinted goggles all the time, when soldering, as eye health is important too. The Torch you use will have an impact on the heat you can get to, and that will need to be considered. A bigger load of metal will need a bigger load of flame. I started off with one of the DIY go-gas torches and would pull the flame away on bigger items and a pencil torch for wire work. However, this is something I wanted to do and invested in a better set up.


If the cost of a soldering wig is too much. You can make your own version with thick binding wire. It has to be thick - not the thin spindly stuff. Coil most of the binding wire around a big biro and then pull it out slightly stretch it back and scrunch it up into a ball, and then flatten it. The heat generated from the wigs is good. They do not, however, provide much of a solid surface and practice before using your final piece is always recommended for you to work out the best way to get results.

edit: here is a link to a soldering wig via our forum hosts, Cookson Gold: http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-Tools/Soldering-Wigs-prcode-999-963

The fuel you use shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Another thing you can do, if you reach the required orange, is to quickly swipe a thicker coating of borax on the area. I have seen and then used the cone directly on a couple of occasions, but you have to be fast. You need the benefit of the glaze from the borax or equivalent to help the solder have something to stick to so it can melt and adhere. But you already probably know that.

Pop it all into your pickle solution, rinse it off and get it to glow. If you don't have bricks, you can always use soldering boards or soldering fibre.

kindest,
Wallace

[Kermit]

I'm very inexperienced in jewellery making, but you mentioned the torch - yes the temperature in the room can affect the burning temperature if yours isn't a pressure regulated torch. (something to do with the gas pressure in the can being lower at lower temps....).

I use a basic plumbers torch and when my utitily room is very cold I can't get anything but the smallest item hot enough to solder - when normally I don't have any problem at all with the same torch. Brought everything into my kitchen and gave the torch half an hour to warm up and hey presto, worked no problem.

[Dennis]

That's an interesting thought. Fridges don't work well in very cold rooms either, but then you could just leave the fridge door open.

[Goldsmith]

Just a thought Sandra, but did you clean the hard solder before cutting the pallions and did you dip the pallions in some borax before adding them to the boraxed solder joint? I am afraid I do not know much about the torch you are using or what the highest setting is. But for a large soldering job you need a large flame so that the whole job gets heated up to the solder flow temperature.
It may be a good idea to seek out some lessons as soldering methods are much easier to demonstrate than explain.

This shows my method of hard soldering a bezel to a backplate, the photos show, job fluxed, job loaded with solder pallions,then job soldered.
The clamps hold the bezel in place and also holds the backplate away from the solder block allowing the job to heat up easily.
540254005401

James

[Sandra]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I did dip the pallions in borax and boraxed the silver pieces to be soldered. I filed and used a scrubby on the areas to be soldered so they were nice and clean prior to that. I began very gradually with the flame and built up the heat. The one thing I didn't do is clean the solder itself. I was heating for so long I had to refill the torch at one point. I kept the flame moving but the metal turned a bright red but the solder still did not flow. In fact I can pick off the solder pieces because they are still intact. I am using this torch http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-Tools/Proxxon-Microflame-Burner--Hand-Torch-prcode-999-7703. I was able to solder a joint using hard silver solder earlier in the day, the only things I know that changed was the temperature of the room and the fuel in my torch. I tried different methods, at one point had it clipped in my helping hand device and heating from the bottom. I also burned my hand in the process today on a tweezers I used while I had the torch going, forgot the handle would be hot. Ouch..... So my pendant is in various pieces and I have ice on my hand at the moment.

Oh I really need clamps like yours Goldsmith! I wouldn't have burned my hand if I had!

[Wallace]

ouch! Aloe is very handy in the workshop! a bottle of water is always handy too.

hope it feels better soon. If you were not so far away, I would be happy for you to come and spend a day exploring soldering.

Someone really should make a stock of steel strips for peeps to buy and make some of their own clamps.

[Icarleug]

How big is the piece you tried to solder? How long did it take to heat the whole piece to red?
I had problems with my filigree heart too, the solder took ages to flow and then it still left pieces of unmelted solder (or rather, the binder vaporized before the solder all melted, so it basically turned to a silver blob). With two scrolls it was ok but slow, with four and more I heated it for ages and it still didn't get hot enough.
Remember that silver is one of the best heat conductors of all times. When you are heating a part of the piece the rest of it is basically cooling it down again.

The solution was to get a bigger torch. Micro-torches may be good for soldering jump rings and single wires together, but not for bigger jobs.
With the new torch (I got a basic one from my hardware store, using a small canister of butane gas) I heated my piece until the solder flowed in a mere ten seconds if not less (though it was mostly wire, a bigger piece will take longer). Just remember to start from a distance and move it a lot. The flame should not have a "jet flow" because it might get all to hot in the center, better with a spread flame.

Also make sure to dip the solder in the pickle before cutting it and flux it up well (I picked up the pieces with my fluxing brush (an ordinary small brush for painting plastic models) and put them where I wanted them).

And, well, I am no expert after one tiny soldered piece, but it was a good lesson in how not to solder. ;)

/Andreas

[Sandra]

Thanks Wallace. Andreas the piece is about 2 inches by 1 inch, .5 mm thick sheet silver and trying to solder a wire rim on top. I heated it for a long time, 25 minutes at least. I'm not sure what's considered normal. I suspect the room was too cold, and everywhere the torch wasn't - quickly cooled off(?). I have had more than one piece now that came together looking lovely, until I begin soldering.

[Dennis]

I don't think there is a mystery Sandra: as your piece grows in size during construction you need a bigger torch, because your little Proxxon has its limits, as pointed out by Andreas. If nothing is happening after about twenty seconds you don't have enough heat.

A hand held torch such as DIY persons use around the house, is the most basic to do the job. The Campingaz one comes from Homebase, and the Go-System one from B&Q. They take a butane propane mix in replaceable canisters.

Which one you choose depends which supplier is convenient for replacement canisters later. It does help to pay extra for the self igniting model. You also have the choice of two sizes of canister, which effects the length of time they will burn, but not the heat .

Dennis.

[Sandra]

Thanks Dennis, I was afraid of that. I didn't think this piece was very big, but it is a little bit larger than the others I've done so far. I'll take a look at different torches this weekend. Soldering so far has been the most frustrating and difficult part of jewellery making for me.

[Truffle & Podge]

Hi Sandra, I went the route of buying a hand torchy thing that was better than the one i started with (a cheapo cooks torch) but now i'm aching for an orca which you can change tips on to suit the size of the jobs you are doing. You may find that one of these might be a better investment as i think everyone eventually goes down the route of needing a torch with a seperate gas supply, just an idea :D

[Sandra]

Coincidentally I was just searching this forum for posts on torches and was reading about Orcas just now. I am already on my second torch so I think I should invest in one I'll be happy with longer. The Orca I just found online costs £65, does that sound about right?

[Truffle & Podge]

Coincidentally I was just searching this forum for posts on torches and was reading about Orcas just now. I am already on my second torch so I think I should invest in one I'll be happy with longer. The Orca I just found online costs £65, does that sound about right?
Was that from Walshes? I think that might be where my "surprise" xmas present is coming from, thats the price not inc vat but it does come with the tube i checked lol. It doesn't come with a regulator tho but im pretty sure it's the same regulator you use for a camping stove and im reliably informed that it has a flash back arrestor in the hand piece

[Wallace]

the flash back for the orca is in it's connecting regulator. It is built in and that is why it is not a cheap thing to purchase. You can connect any flashbacks and fittings to the hose that are UK compliant and standard.

[Truffle & Podge]

Hose! damn that was the word i was looking for! i think i pickled my brain...................duh

[trialuser]

If a torch is only burning propane in atmospheric oxygen, mixed in the open nozzle, why would you need a flash back arrestor?
There is not one on hand held plumbers / cooks blowtorches, or ovens, or hobs, or lighters.
Genuine question, I thought they were only necessary if using hose delivered oxygen.

[mizgeorge]

If a torch is only burning propane in atmospheric oxygen, mixed in the open nozzle, why would you need a flash back arrestor?
There is not one on hand held plumbers / cooks blowtorches, or ovens, or hobs, or lighters.
Genuine question, I thought they were only necessary if using hose delivered oxygen.

You don't. I think a lot of people get them with their first propane torch so they're in place for when (which is so often the case rather than if) they upgrade to a propane/oxygen version.

[trialuser]

Ah - OK - cheers.

[Truffle & Podge]

Also some of us are just plain terrified of anything to do with gas hahahahahaha had my fair share of lighters blowing up so anything for peace of mind :"> plus also what George said lol

[LydiaNiz]

ohh the cold is a nightmare. Our studios are brutally cold between oct and march. I need the heater on full blast for a couple of hours before my torches behave nicely!

[chrisg]

Hi Sandra

I see there is an Orca on eBay for £43.95 plus £8 postage - from Hong Kong. It comes with the flexible hose. Only problem is it will take a while to arrive...
look up ORCA Hand Torch Welding, Soldering, Heating W/ Hose & 3 Interchangeable Heads


Chris :)

[mizgeorge]

Hi Sandra

I see there is an Orca on eBay for £43.95 plus £8 postage - from Hong Kong. It comes with the flexible hose. Only problem is it will take a while to arrive...
look up ORCA Hand Torch Welding, Soldering, Heating W/ Hose & 3 Interchangeable Heads


Chris :)


Except that chances are (given the usual seller of these) that it's not an Orca, but a good Chinese copy of one. Nothing wrong with them, but not the real thing. These guys produce very good replicas of a lot of equipment, and some of it's just fine.