Soldering tweezers gone bendy!

[Dennis]

Well, post some pix and we'll have a competition. Do you have a thing for getting stones out of horses' hooves?

[Inanegal]

I presume you are talking about self closing insulated tweezers,Liz. The good thing about those is that the broad part will balance on the edge of a block while grasping something vertical for soldering, for instace an ear post. Dennis.

Hi Dennis,

I've tried doing this, but the item being held doesn't stand vertically when I grasp it in the tweezers. Maybe my tweezers are defective. Sometimes I prop one of the insulated pads up with a tiny piece of copper sheet to make the item vertical, which seems to work well enough.

Regards,
Nina

[medusa]

Dennis,

I'll do it on wednesday. We could have a thread for much loved tools.

and do you mean a hoof pick?

[Dennis]

Hi Dennis,

I've tried doing this, but the item being held doesn't stand vertically when I grasp it in the tweezers. Maybe my tweezers are defective. Sometimes I prop one of the insulated pads up with a tiny piece of copper sheet to make the item vertical, which seems to work well enough.

Regards,
Nina

Here you are Nina,
You probably need to adjust your tweezers. Part of the job for jewellers.

[Dennis]

[QUOTE=medusa;41714]Dennis,

I'll do it on wednesday. We could have a thread for much loved tools.

and do you mean a hoof pick?

[/QUOTE

I think that is a screwdriver for when head-room is limited. There is a name for it, but I've forgotten what. Not for horses, no.

[Joe]

Actually, that does rather look like a hoof-pick I've used! They really don't like pointy things there and the heavy-suffolk I groomed would have let me know in a very positive way!!

Absolutely lovely photo of the soldering arrangement Dennis, lovely colour balance; art is in delicate things. I hope it's saved to be brought out again when necessary.

Can I add a photo for your the soldering album, with Cookies reverse titanium tweezers:



I hope and trust that James will link some of his clamp photos too - I have made some and am slowly getting the hang of them, though there is some tempering required I think.

Joe

[medusa]

Dennis,

I'll do it on wednesday. We could have a thread for much loved tools.

and do you mean a hoof pick?

I think that is a screwdriver for when head-room is limited. There is a name for it, but I've forgotten what. Not for horses, no.

no, it is a hoof pick, but what about hoof picks ? do you have an ingenious soldering use for them?

Actually, that does rather look like a hoof-pick I've used! They really don't like pointy things there and the heavy-suffolk I groomed would have let me know in a very positive way!!

Absolutely lovely photo of the soldering arrangement Dennis, lovely colour balance; art is in delicate things. I hope it's saved to be brought out again when necessary.

Can I add a photo for your the soldering album, with Cookies reverse titanium tweezers:



I hope and trust that James will link some of his clamp photos too - I have made some and am slowly getting the hang of them, though there is some tempering required I think.

Joe

those are rather fine looking tweezers! I'm afraid most of my soldering/braising is very basic at the moment. I'm just happy if I can get the stuff to stick!

I notice there are no pictures of charcoal blocks. are the honeycomb ones better?

[Joe]

Different rather than better.

The charcoal burns when heated during soldering and generates extra heat for the bottom of the piece; you need to keep something handy to put it out sometimes. It can be a bit smelly for use indoors.

I like the honeycomb a lot but I find that quite a bit of heat can pass through it so I only use it on another heat resistant surface. They offer lots of ways of holding the piece.

The asbestos substitute blocks from cookies are good too; they're very good at resisting heat at silver and gold temperatures and can be cleaned easily with a light sanding (careful of the dust though!). I now know they can't take platinum annealing temperatures though...

[Goldsmith]

I hope and trust that James will link some of his clamp photos too - I have made some and am slowly getting the hang of them, though there is some tempering required I think.

Joe[/QUOTE]

Hi Joe, here are the photos of my soldering clamps, made from 0.90mm thick stainless steel sheet, the clamps are pierced 4mm. wide, 3 or 4 inch long strips, then bent up with flat pliers into the required clamp shape, I sometimes also file points on the clamp ends for holding tiny pieces when soldering.
James

[medusa]

Thanks Joe, I have an asbestos one and charcoal. I thought the charcoal would help me keeping a higher temp on a collar fastening I was doing and it worked. worked better with thermogel as well! I may try out the honeycomb ones as well.

James, that is totally ingenious! I will have to try that as well. it makes so much sense rather than trying to hold the piece in place manually.