1mm trace chain

[JonLendrum]

Hi everyone,

I bought some loose 1mm trace chain from cookson not really thinking about how to go about soldering jump rings etc to it. From my initial look at it I cant imagine i can ever loop a thin eniugh piece of wire through the tiny links, so how would i go about soldering onto it? Do you literally solder straight onto it the chain? Any help would be great!

Thank you

Jon

[Wallace]

You can use jump rings and butt join to the chain, looks messy, but it is so wee, it is a difficult not to. Flatten the chain and then solder the ring at the ends in line with the flat chain. But of easy solder, or you might end up with a blob of silver, instead of chain. Small, gentle flame, and keep it moving. Cover the rest of the chain with a heat guard. I use old bits of broken board.

You could always make some u shaped ends and solder those on, similar to the Italian chain ends. Easy enough to make, but might take a little practice to solder in place.

[mizgeorge]

With chain as fine as that, it's sometimes easier (and a lot less frustrating) to just use crimp on ends, which can look very neat and are good and strong.

[Dennis]

With chain as fine as that, it's sometimes easier (and a lot less frustrating) to just use crimp on ends, which can look very neat and are good and strong.

George's is probably the cleaner option, but if you decide the soldering route, then close the jump ring with a little more solder than you would normally use.

Do not quench or pickle. Lay the soldered joint on or close to the fluxed chain end and re-heat the jump ring. They will quickly connect. You need a small bushy flame from a mini torch. The secret is to make the solder trickle rather than flash and then immediately remove the flame. Dennis.

[JonLendrum]

Thanks guys, appreciate the advice!

[Stacey]

If you want to solder the clasp ends Palmers sell ring end caps, not sure if Cookson do. It's a hollow tube (smallest 1 mm internally) with a jump ring already soldered to the end. You shove the chain into the tube and solder it in place. Solder paste makes it a simpler job. Otherwise, you could lay the trace chain in a fold over chain end or similar finding, solder, and then fold over to finish. Been shopping lately because I made the mistake of buying a chain that was too small .... I always forget that links linking into each other dramatically narrow the space left to accomodate wire, etc. :-O

[JonLendrum]

I like the sound of that idea stacey, i think i might give that a go. Thanks !!!!

[Dennis]

Even so, to feed chain into a tube you will probably have to stiffen it with solder first. Then by refluxing the fed in chain can be reheated to make the solder run again. Dennis.