Optimum thickness of sheet for sweat soldering

[Dennis]

Hi Hazel and welcome back. You have really answered your own questions:
As a piece gets bigger, you will need more heat or an easier solder to get the solder flowing.
You would have had a better time fixing on the ball with hard first and sweating the front with easy solder after.

Many of us skip medium silver solder as being difficult to use and if I have used easy extensively, I might even go on to extra easy next.

If your torch is not doing its thing after thirty or forty seconds, its best not to continue along that route, because you will get more firescale and risk damage to your piece. That is when you use a bigger torch, or two torches one in each hand, or easier solder. Dennis.

[Petal]

Hi Hazel and welcome back. You have really answered your own questions:
As a piece gets bigger, you will need more heat or an easier solder to get the solder flowing.
You would have had a better time fixing on the ball with hard first and sweating the front with easy solder after.

Many of us skip medium silver solder as being difficult to use and if I have used easy extensively, I might even go on to extra easy next.

If your torch is not doing its thing after thirty or forty seconds, its best not to continue along that route, because you will get more firescale and risk damage to your piece. That is when you use a bigger torch, or two torches one in each hand, or easier solder. Dennis.

That's a lovely brooch Hazel.

I remember someone posting on here that medium solder was the work of the Devil and have avoided it since then. Thanks for the tip about the 30-40 seconds Dennis.

[china]

Just to mention do you have a large tip for your torch a 7 or a rose tip, the rose tip will easily melt Silver for casting if used sparingly can also be used to solder larger pieces .

P.S. What am I doing wrong I have never experienced the "medium solder syndrome", then again these days when using Silver I work almost exclusively with Argentium maybe this does not have the problem.

[TDA20]

I've recently started using Argentium and find the "medium hard" Argentium solder much nicer than the medium sterling solder. Having said that, I really struggled with soft Argentium solder and have given up using it for now.

[china]

I find the soft Argentium solder a breeze to use, it flows so quick it is scary, one thing I have stopped using is the liquid Argentium flux just doesn't seem to be much good.

[TDA20]

I find the soft Argentium solder a breeze to use, it flows so quick it is scary, one thing I have stopped using is the liquid Argentium flux just doesn't seem to be much good.

Good to know. Thanks Bob

[CJ57]

When I did my training the rule was hard medium easy solder and I can’t ever remember having a problem with medium but I did use a borax cone and now auflux. It wasn’t until I joined my first forum 10 years ago that everyone complained about medium solder and I haven’t used it since. I must try it again just to see how I get on!

[Petal]

I remember someone posting on here that medium solder was the work of the Devil and have avoided it since then. Thanks for the tip about the 30-40 seconds Dennis.[/QUOTE]

It was when I was learning to solder Bob and I made the mistake of trying it out with medium solder, which wouldn't flow. I then went onto easy, but now use hard for 90% of my work. Having said that I am told that medium is commonly used with gold...?

[eekoh]

I’ve never used medium, I’ve always stuck to easy & hard because folks here said it was tricky and I don’t generally have lots of separate joints in a single piece where I’d need a greater range.

Thanks for the nice comments, I’m quite pleased with the design though there’s room for improvement in my execution of it ��
Re thickness of sheet, what sort of size would you choose for this sort of piece?

[Dennis]

Re thickness of sheet, what sort of size would you choose for this sort of piece?

They're not answering this question, but 0.70 is fine for a pendant, i think. Dennis.