Solder not sticking

After trying more than 10 times without success, I feel like I must turn to someone more experienced to finally find out what I'm doing wrong.
I am trying to solder two pieces together, just regular flat pieces of brass. I am using a hand held torch, silver solder strip cut to tiny pieces and a borax cone and dish for flux. The problem is, that the solder flows nicely but it just won't stick.
I have done a lot of soldering before (I'm studying decorative arts at university), and I never had this problem at my uni workshop. Now that I'm doing it at home it just won't work. I have cleaned the metal very well so that can't be the problem.
The only thing that is different is my borax cone. The one I used at uni was a bit different to mine, it made a nice milky homogenous paste, but mine seems to have some tiny granules in it. It turns milky but I can clearly see the little bumps in there, which makes it difficult to spread it out on the metal. However, with a little extra time I could distribute it properly and it seemed to act like normal flux so I'm not sure if this is the problem.
Please help, I am getting really angry haha. Thanks :)

Provided the brass and solder have been cleaned, the solder not sticking signals that the brass strips are not getting hot enough to reach soldering temperature for the grade of solder you are using.

You might conserve heat by building a cave from bricks to solder in, or by using two torches together, one in each hand.

You can also change to easy, or extra easy silver solder. (most of us avoid medium as too tricky)

Ultimately to be less restricted, you will need a bigger torch. Dennis

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rrekasz11

After trying more than 10 times without success, I feel like I must turn to someone more experienced to finally find out what I'm doing wrong.
I am trying to solder two pieces together, just regular flat pieces of brass. I am using a hand held torch, silver solder strip cut to tiny pieces and a borax cone and dish for flux. The problem is, that the solder flows nicely but it just won't stick.
I have done a lot of soldering before (I'm studying decorative arts at university), and I never had this problem at my uni workshop. Now that I'm doing it at home it just won't work. I have cleaned the metal very well so that can't be the problem.
The only thing that is different is my borax cone. The one I used at uni was a bit different to mine, it made a nice milky homogenous paste, but mine seems to have some tiny granules in it. It turns milky but I can clearly see the little bumps in there, which makes it difficult to spread it out on the metal. However, with a little extra time I could distribute it properly and it seemed to act like normal flux so I'm not sure if this is the problem.
Please help, I am getting really angry haha. Thanks :)

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This happens to me when my door is open or a draught.


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