Soldering hints & tips for a new jeweller

[GillJewel]

After years of being a major fan of all things jewellery I've enroleld in a basic course and am trying to make my own silver ring set with a cheap topaz stone. Can anyone give me some VERY basic tips for soldering, please bare in mind I'm a real ametuer ?

[noelsharpe]

Soldering is easy. I've only got a cheap, clumsy propane torch from a hardware store, but it gets good and hot, and I can solder all but the most delicate joins - no chain making for me. I've done it as an exercise, but cannot recommend it.

I made a ring with a 3mm topaz set in a hand formed silver collet. It was a bit of an accident really - I never set out to do it, it just happened. Here's how I did it: I had a small amount of silver sheet left over from repairing a bezel for my mother, and I thought I'd hit it with a hammer to try my hand at thinning sheet by hand. I squared it up with a file, and thought I'd solder it into a ring, just for practice. When I'd cleaned it up, I realised that it was an almost perfect fit for a topaz I had on my bench, so I used a center punch to stretch the ring at one end to accept the topaz. Great - so now I had a perfect setting for the topaz, I had to make something for it to go on. I used some 3 x 2mm D profile silver to fashion a ring. The most important thing when soldering is to remember that the fit must be as perfect as possible. You can't use more solder to make up for a poor fitting join, so really spend a while to make sure that the join is a perfect fit, then flux, and solder. You only need the teeniest amount to make join - say 1mm square? Use hard solder for this.
I then filed the collet to fit onto the ring, bound it with iron wire and soldered the collet on. Again concentrate on making a tight fitting join, and use little solder.
After this I drilled the ring away from inside the collet - be careful you don't go into the collet.
Now all you need to do is polish and mount the stone. I just used the center punch to form the top of the collet over the topaz. Simple and pretty.

Other things to bear in mind: silver melts easily. Solder out of the light (I always draw the curtains when soldering and turn off the bench light so I can see the colour of the metal properly. Practice of a bit of scrap to see when it melts.

Hope that helps you.


Noel

[Bee]

Some hints and tips for soldering:

-Make sure you have a good, tight join between the pieces you want to join
-Make sure that the area you want to solder is clean
-When applying your flux, try to coat only the areas you want the solder to reach
-If you're only soldering one join, then any hardness will do. If you're doing more than one join then you'll need to do the first one with a higher melting temperature solder (Medium or Hard)
-Make sure you heat the whole object evenly, not just where you want to make the join. Heat will be conducted away from the hot areas to the cool areas so keep it all hot!
-Keep the torch moving! You might risk melting your work if you concentrate on one spot too much!
-If you can place the solder on one edge of the work and draw it towards the flame from the other then side your join will be neater
-Only use enough solder to fill the join. More solder doesn't equal a stronger join, but it does mean more cleaning up elbow grease!
-Practice, practice, practice!!

There's probably more but that should get you going!!

:)

[Redkite]

Great tips from Bee!

I would only add one: stop heating as soon as you see the solder running, otherwise the work can slide around a bit and you risk melting it!

[Dano]

for good soldering it's vital to know how solder actually works, and what it isn't.

1. solder is not a glue (well sort of).
2. solder is not a filler.

solder works by flowing into tiny voids in the metal of the pieces you are joining, and i mean really tiny, molecular even. it is absolutely vital that your pieces fit flush before soldering and that they are clean as heck. it's pretty forgiving on overlaps and surface misalignments to a point but any gaps between your parts you can forget it.

[Dano]

oh yeah i forgot one:

heat the piece, not the solder. let the solder melt from the heat of the silver, never directly heat the solder outside of just maybe giving it a little prod with the flame if it's being bratty.

[HMPjewellery]

Ace tips, thanks guys,
Have been doing a batch of small detailed studs, which is going really well but the solder goes everywhere, which isnt good as they are pretty small!
note to self...where flux goes solder will go:rolleyes:

this will help me out a lot i feel

Hannah

[MuranoSilver]

If it's putting backs onto studs then the cookson stud pins that have the teeny pad & easy solder paste would make your job very very easy.

Scoop a bit of solder paste onto the end of the pin, hold it against the earring front, heat & bung it in the pickle. (As the meerkat would say "Simples!")

The solder paste being self fluxing eliminates a whole process

Nic xx

[Milomade]

Does solder paste come in similar grades as normal solder i.e. hard, medium, easy and extra easy. I'm thinking of getting some to try out - I think it will make soldering jump rings far less fiddly and I've not yet looked on the cooksongold site to see what they have.

Can solder paste be used for anything or os it best to use it for specific types of soldering?

[MuranoSilver]

Yes solder paste comes in hard, medium & easy & is great for jump rings, earring backs etc. I prefer to use pallions of the strip solder for things like bezel settings etc as it generally gives a neater finish

Nicolax

[Milomade]

Is it worth investing in H/M/E/XE solder paste then?

[agent_44]

I'd say so, I keep all grades of paste and of strip solder, which I use depends on what I am doing.

[Dano]

Is it worth investing in H/M/E/XE solder paste then?

yeah eventually! if you're on a budget though i think you can get by with M and E to start with (student mindset here still)

also i think everyone should get au fait with pallion soldering before they move on to solder pastes but i've always been one for doing things the old fashioned way to begin with, it helps you get a better handle on the process and when you DO switch to pastes and stuff it makes everything seem so easy it's almost like cheating ;)

[amazingbabe]

Hi i was wondering exactly how many pallions of solder would you use to solder a bezel to the base?? Would you use easy medium or hard?? xx:confused:

[mizgeorge]

I generally use four to six, depending on the size of the bezel. Though I often use paste instead, especially for smaller pieces.

I'd usually use medium, having used hard for the initial bezel join, and with a view to using easy for setting the finished cup onto whatever it's going to be used for (if it needs another soldered stage of course).

[ben b]

..............................

[ps_bond]

a good flux, is a green liquid call auflux. It can be used for silver and gold. If anyone uses a borax cone on a dish of water, and a small paintbrush...dont. Your just being silly.

That's an interesting assertion Ben... Please could you elaborate? I can think of a couple of things against borax - the foaming up, the limited working time at temperature, the aggro of getting the stuff ground; but by and large, it does what I want.

I've recently started to use Auflux; I'm not convinced yet that I like it, but I'm persevering.

[Ominicci]

Yep, would be interested to know too. I have heard from an ex student of my tutor that borax is old hat and 'no-one should be teaching that these days', but that's how I was taught so I don't know any different :confused:

[Milomade]

I use auflux as that's what I've been taught to use, but so many of the books I'm learning from use borax.

[julie]

Yep, would be interested to know too. I have heard from an ex student of my tutor that borax is old hat and 'no-one should be teaching that these days', but that's how I was taught so I don't know any different :confused:

agree would be interesting to know i use borax it's what is used at college..

[CyberPaddy66]

Everything I've learned recently about soldering I got from watching Luis F Moreno over at Ganoskin and Youtube, if you never saw his work you really should have a look there, I will post the link when I'm allowed to!

[EDIT]

http://www.youtube.com/user/luis67813

[Cheryl]

Fire Mountain Gems in Oregon sell the solder paste. They also have a small selection of metal working tools, all very reasonably priced - depending on the exchage rate, but even at the moment they're good value; and they're good quality too.

I can't put in a link as I haven't made enough posts here yet, but go to firemountaingems and scroll down the left hand side to the Jewelry Supplies section then tools you'll find them.

I use their solder paste for intricate little bits, it's very good.

Cheryl

[Di Sandland]

Sweetie, Cooksons sell the solder paste and they're a litle closer to home ;)

[EmmaRose]

I use Auflux- alot less work than borax and only £1 a bottle. I think the US has already powdered borax (they never mention grinding it). There is also stuff like easy flo powder (though I think that might be more for copper/ brass etc??)
Em