Beginner's Disaster

[woof]

Hi.

Managed to cut, shape and texture a leaf out of sheet - looked lovely, really pleased with it!

Then disaster struck......... tried to solder it to a 4mm flat wire. (paste medium). The paste caught fire, turned into rock, didn't flow anywhere, silver sheet kept distorting under the heat, making a gap between the 2. Eventually managed to get the 2 to stick together, after a million attempts but my beautiful leaf is ruined.

Am I expecting too much of soldering? Is it not suitable to use to join 2 big pieces like this? Or am I using the wrong stuff - should I use solder and flux instead of paste? Or should soldering be done first thing and then shaping etc afterwards?

Any help/advice would be really appreciated. Thanks x

[MuranoSilver]

Are you using a big enough torch to heat big pieces of metal
(sorry if you are it didn't say) the metal should heat up pretty quickly
Nicx

[mizgeorge]

I don't know what gauge of sheet you're using, but 4mm wire takes a fair bit of heat to get to soldering temperature. Paste will do the job fine (though I'd opt for hard or easy, and only use medium if I really need the extra stage), but it's important not to play the flame directly onto the solder for very long until the rest of the metal's hot enough to make it flow.

[Rustic Charm]

Have you got a pic???

[woof]

Are you using a big enough torch to heat big pieces of metal
(sorry if you are it didn't say) the metal should heat up pretty quickly
Nicx

I don't know - I just got the basic one from cooksons - no it didn't heat up quickly - I think this is probably it, thanks! (and only briefly once did I get silver turning red)

[woof]

I don't know what gauge of sheet you're using, but 4mm wire takes a fair bit of heat to get to soldering temperature. Paste will do the job fine (though I'd opt for hard or easy, and only use medium if I really need the extra stage), but it's important not to play the flame directly onto the solder for very long until the rest of the metal's hot enough to make it flow.

The wire was 4.2mm wide by 0.75mm deep (oh and with a pattern - would this make a difference?) and the sheet was 5mm thick.

Looks like I'm going to have to try hubby's blow lamp after turning him down and saying, oh no, thank you, I need a little jewellers torch!!!

[woof]

Have you got a pic???

Oh, I wouldn't want anyone to see the mess I've made of this, hehe - although stuck together the back is full of silver rocks............

[mizgeorge]

I don't think that torch is hot enough for the job I'm afraid. A big taymar type torch might be overkill though - you really need something in between unless you go for a seivert or oxypropane setup.

I can thoroughly recommend the Nimrod pro - Welcome to Nimrod Europe Direct - fantastic little torch for a handheld, and very easy to use.

[Di Sandland]

I don't think that torch is hot enough for the job I'm afraid. A big taymar type torch might be overkill though - you really need something in between unless you go for a seivert or oxypropane setup.

I can thoroughly recommend the Nimrod pro - Welcome to Nimrod Europe Direct - fantastic little torch for a handheld, and very easy to use.

Woof, I started with the Cookson's torch and found soldering a nightmare - it was fine for jump rings and stuff but on larger jobs my solder paste kept turning black and cindery. I bough myself the nimrod and all of a sudden I could solder!

Cooksons torch (the small one) is okay for starting with and will happily do little jobs but for the size of job you're talking about it doesn't really produce it's heat quickly enough.

[woof]

Thank you both will go and take a look at Nimrod xx