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When I was a young whippersnapper apprentice many moons ago my solder used to have a will of its own I developed what I thought was an ingenious plan, I heated the spilled solder up to melting point and used a small brass brush to wipe it up (excess solder stuck to the brass bristles)
"Soldering wire onto another piece"
I only use strip solder, my work is usually on wire gauze which let's my flame pass beneath (prevents melting anything delicate on top)
I only feed the solder in from the one end and chase it down the line....... like a capillary action the solder automatically flows down the wire
providing the correct melting temperature is reached.
Carlton
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I don't use paste solder very often unless absolutely driven to it. So on the rare occasions that I do, it needs to be still workable.
Paste from many suppliers in the past has been almost too stiff to extrude from the start. The ones I have now from palmer Metals (hard and easy) have remained soft for at least two years, leaving just the same needle in place, stuck in a cork. Dennis.
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Claire, I thought you may like to see this tutorial sheet I prepared for someone else who asked me about how I make leaves on my flower pieces. I am assuming that your piece is a leaf design.
I had already prepared a photo tutorial on how I shape leaves, see; http://www.guildofjewellerydesigners...d=15&Itemid=67
and I was asked how I add stems to the leaves so I prepared this photosheet.
Attachment 7217
James
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James, thank you! Your leaves are beautiful, so realistic looking. Maybe one day mine might be a bit better but I've still got very much to learn. (and so many more tools and equipment to buy, it seems like every project requires me to buy a new tool of some sort! Not that I'm complaining!) I really enjoyed reading the leaf making tutorial and have bookmarked it for future reference. May I ask what thickness of metal you'd use for something like that? Do you think it would be possible to use a doming block in place of the lead block? As I already have one of those and not sure where to get a lump of lead from!
Thank you!
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Claire, I use many different thickness metals for leaves but never thicker than 1mm. they are usually 0.5mm. or 0.7mm. thick. I have used blocks of wood when shaping items or even a leather sandbag. I would suggest you try a piece of wood as a first attempt, also if you cannot afford to buy ready shaped hammers, you can buy cheap tack hammers and grind or file them to shapes that suit you. I reshaped a lot of my hammers, the hammer used in the leaf tutorial is a reshaped ball pein hammer, like one of these; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Set-Ball-Pei...ll+pein+hammer you can't go wrong at £12 for 4 hammers.
Lead ingots ; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cast-Lead-In.../dp/B00CKNLYB4
Attachment 7218
these are a couple of cheap hammers I reshaped.
and here is one of my wooden blocks and two more of my reshaped hammers;
Attachment 7219
James
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I've inherited a load of hammers, and other tools from my husband's late grandfather, who also used to make jewellery. I keep meaning to take a picture and see if anyone here can help me identify things as his wife doesn't know and neither do I!