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Thread: Soldering silver posts to brass

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2020
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    Default Soldering silver posts to brass

    I have been using solder paste to solder silver earring posts to brass pieces (sometimes quite chunky and complicated 3d shapes) and have about a 50% chance that the post breaks in the polishing tumbler or will break eventually.
    So my joints are clearly not good enough.
    The reason for using solder paste is because of the complex shapes of some of the pieces.
    Do you have any tips? Thank you!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
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    It’s the paste I’m afraid. It’s not ideal for areas that need to be really secure and I find if I’ve used it for anything other than a jump ring something will come off in the polishing process! Pallions of strip solder will be much more efficient

  3. #3
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    Jul 2009
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    I'd second Caroline's recommendation and rarely use paste now. I have both Auflux and a Borax cone and find using Borax much better. Auflux is convenient, but doesn't flow as well as with Borax.
    Jules

  4. #4
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    As said above, plus be careful not to overheat the Brass it will bring Zinc to the surface and contaminated the join, causing it to fail.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by china View Post
    As said above, plus be careful not to overheat the Brass it will bring Zinc to the surface and contaminated the join, causing it to fail.
    I wasn’t sure what to do about the brass in relation to which strip solder to use so I didn’t comment. But I’m guessing probably easy in that case Bob?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
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    Yep, that way you keep the heat low, I used easy on a large belt buckle, Brass back and Silver face (For my kilt) that was in 2019 it worked very well and is as solid as the day I made it.

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