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Thread: Making your own brooch findings

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by SilverPlayer View Post
    Hi Nic,

    I have some questions about this, as I'm about to have another go at this later today:

    1) Do you flatten the spiral 'pad' that you make for both ends of the brooch finding?
    2) Do you solder each end one at a time, or do both at the same time?
    3) You didn't mention in the tute what solder you used. Is it possible to use hard solder for each end?
    4) I'm using sterling silver as my brooch base, and planning to use hard solder throughout. My plan is to melt the solder on one end of the brooch base, and then re-introduce one end of the brooch finding to the base, heat the base up some more and hope the heat from the base will conduct up through the brooch wire, melting the solder at the same time and bonding both base and wire. Then I'd do the same for the other side.

    Do you think this will work?
    1) I think I flattened it a little but you dont have to (as long as the contact is good)
    2) Soldering both at the same time is fine
    3) Used easy solder on this one as I wasn't attaching anything else and the lower temp reduced the risk of melting the wire.
    4) Yes it will work but why are you making the hard solder melting a seperate process?
    Each time you melt the solder it raises it's next melting temp a little....
    I'd suggest easy solder for findings (unless you attaching other parts later?)
    Nic x
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  2. #12
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    Glad you liked the tutorial Kwant & would love to see what you make
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  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by MuranoSilver View Post
    4) Yes it will work but why are you making the hard solder melting a seperate process?
    Each time you melt the solder it raises it's next melting temp a little....
    I'd suggest easy solder for findings (unless you attaching other parts later?)
    Nic x

    Thanks for the reply and tips Nic,

    I had another go yesterday, and you were dead right about more heat needed to melt previously melted hard solder. I don't think this is supposed to happen, but by the time I'd finished my new charcoal brick had split into 3 bits due to the heat

    Anyway... eventually I managed to get both wire ends soldered on without melting them. Tonight I'll try and shape and work-harden the wires and hope the heat hasn't made them brittle enough to break.

    I was following the process you used to in one of your mini-vids where you melted solder onto a fine silver cufflink base and then added the Sterling silver cuff link post.... is this process used only when using easy solder?

    I used hard solder because that's all I had to hand, but I am picking up an order of easy solder tomorrow, as I have another brooch to finish off with findings and will use this in future.

    I'll post a pic when it's finished

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by SilverPlayer View Post
    I had another go yesterday, and you were dead right about more heat needed to melt previously melted hard solder. I don't think this is supposed to happen, but by the time I'd finished my new charcoal brick had split into 3 bits due to the heat
    Yup, that's the case with solders - on the first heating, you've reduced the amount of zinc in it (which is one of the things you need good ventilation for) resulting in an alloy that has a higher melting point. As for the charcoal block... They do that. Easiest thing to do is to wrap them with some binding wire before you start using them. Mine is several years old now and - despite it having cracked a number of times - is still holding up.

  5. #15
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    Peter - thanks for the tip about binding the charcoal block!

    I thought I might have a tough time of it as the brooch is small, pierced and the areas where the wires have to sit are small and at an angle.... so I got geared up with numbers 1 and 2 (with ABEK1 filters).


  6. #16
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    Glad it all worked for you - the tchnique with the cuff link will work with any solder but I tend to use easy as
    the lower heat required means it's less likely to melt some of the cufflink parts
    e.g some have springs and some have small previously soldered parts on the finding

    Peter thanks for the more technical explanation of why the solder melts a little higher each time
    Nic x
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  7. #17
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    Default Link is not working

    Hi

    I would love to see your brooch tutorial but the link is no longer working. Do you still have it available?

    Many thanks,
    Penny

  8. #18
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    Dear Penny,
    You might have noticed that you are replying to a seven year old thread. MuranoSilver sadly departed the forum several years ago. Dennis.

  9. #19
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    As Dennis said. If a thread is that old and the links no longer work then the chances of them being fixed are slim at best.
    I've tried using the Wayback Machine to see if it could be recovered, but it wasn't indexed.

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