Soldering

[barclaybear]

Hi All, Silverworking newbie here. Would appreciate a bit of advice on the following please....

I've made a bangle by twisting together two bits of 2mm wire which I then flattened with a hammer. I've got the two ends as close together as I can and have been trying to solder them - so far unsuccessfully.

I've fluxed (using the autoflux from Cooksons rather than borax) the whole piece (didn't mean to but it runs down when I paint it) and placed a small piece of easy solder over the joint. I've then set to it with my little blow torch (the small one from cooksons - not a big tank with tube etc). After a lot of bubbling and fizzing as the flux gets hot (and quite a lot of the solder jumping off the joint ... grrrrr!), the solder sort of crusts over in position. I then heat and heat until the silver is almost red hot. The solder sort of looks like it's going to go runny but then it sort of changes its mind and just sits there looking square.

After than point it doesn't seem to matter what I do the £$%&ing solder won't do its soldery thing and I'm left gnashing my teeth and continuously having to refill my little blow torch.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I might be doing wrong please?

Any help gratefully received.
Many thanks
Barclaybear

[MuranoSilver]

When you say "as close together as I can" there should be an almost invisible line. Solder wont fill a gap or "glue stuff" together it gets drawn into a joint by capillary action maybe your gap is to big?

Nic x

[Charlotte]

I've had a similar problem, there is a lot of metal in a bangle and you need to get the whole thing hot or it just won't go (keep gliding back and forth until you get the heat up, then you can focus on the specific area)... Those little torches don't go as hot as a proper torch, I basically have to shelf my hard solder until I get one. Even medium is a struggle most of the time... and easy is a struggle if there is a lot of metal involved.

I hate to ask a silly question, but are you sure you are using easy solder?

Hope this helps... I'm defiantly not the most advanced jeweller on this forum though, so it may be something else!

[MuranoSilver]

Once you've worked through all the other possibilities it might just be your
torch isn't heating it up enough....
I use the Nimrod PT500 for jobs like that (I've even melted glass with it so it definately gets hot enough!)
Here's a review
http://pmctips.blogspot.com/2009/06/...soldering.html

As an interim measure you could try reflecting some extra heat back off a soldering block.
Prop two charcoal blocks upright on your soldering surface, forming a corner.
(You can place a third block on top like a roof, but that may not be necessary.)
Place your piece to be soldered into the corner section and heat it with your torch.
The blocks will hold and reflect back much of the torch's heat and make soldering easier.

Nic x

[julie]

i made a bangle a few weeks ago with 3 x 1.5mm silver i wrapped the silver with wire to keep the shape & to keep the gap tight i use hard solder two soldered ok no problem but one wasn't having it so i started again ... cleaned it all up taking the wire off and putting in pickle and started again ..

[MuranoSilver]

You could try treating the bangle like a HUGE jump ring - push the ends past each other both sides and then pull them back slightly. The tension should keep the edges together

[The Bijou Dragon]

After having an absolute nightmare of my own today with both hard and easy solder my advice is to use Medium as it seems to work every time for me but neither the easy or the hard would even melt for me the silver would melt but the solder would still be in one piece

I also find the best method is to put the solder down then put the piece you're soldering on top, add a drop of flux and heat all around until it just 'goes'.