A little soldering help needed

**Kwant** · 25-03-2010, 10:04 PM

Ok I had a bit of a disaster. I made a little thing out of PMC into which I wanted to set a CZ. I followed some advice about making a hole in the piece the same size as the stone, which after firing shrinkage would grab and set in place. All was well, and indeed to a point it worked. The problem ( apart from the fact I forgot that I had read that one should not fire blue stones and it is now a kind of bluebrownallsortscolour) was that my piece was perhaps of a not sufficient thickness and the stone fell out when I poked it.

That is the background history to this little disaster.

Ok so now I have this piece with a hole in it. So I thought I would flatten out some wire and and solder four prongs to hold the stone which now sits quite happily on the shrunken hole. Well all went well and I got three in place, but when soldering the last one the first one melted and fell over, sticking to the piece.

So the question after all this long windedness is how does one solder things close together without affecting the stuff you have already done?

**daisychain** · 25-03-2010, 10:22 PM

You need to use solder of different melting temperatures. Solder is commonly sold as hard, medium and easy (and sometimes extra easy). The names refer to how hard or easy they are to melt. Easy has a lower melting temperature than medium, which has a lower melting temperature than hard. So, if I'm working on a piece that needs soldering on three separate occasions then I will use hard first, then medium on the next soldered join as the heat needed to melt the medium solder will not melt the hard, and then easy solder for the next join. Some people also use flux or sometimes heat paste to protect soldered joins when the next joins are soldered, but I don't usually.

If you only need to use solder twice then use medium and then easy. If you only need to solder once use easy. Use the lowest temperature you can to minimise the risk of melting your work.

Those are the basics - I'm sure that more people will come with more hints and tips!

**Jayne** · 25-03-2010, 10:22 PM

I'm no expert, but I've successfully used tippex to protect previously soldered joints before

J x

**Kwant** · 25-03-2010, 10:24 PM

That makes perfect sense and thank you very much

**Kwant** · 25-03-2010, 10:26 PM

I will try that too Jayne as currently I have only easy solder in a syringe and it is not so very easy to get my supplies here in France without ordering from the UK, and being the very impatient person I am ........ well

**daisychain** · 25-03-2010, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by Jayne

I'm no expert, but I've successfully used tippex to protect previously soldered joints before

J x

I'll give that one a try - thanks Jayne!

**Dennis** · 26-03-2010, 09:37 PM

The way to solder on four prongs is to solder two equal wires into a +.Then you bend the arms down until all four touch where you want them. It's best to mark out these places first. You will have something that looks a bit like the legs of a space craft. Once this is in position you can solder all four at once.Then you cut off the unwanted surplus et voila'.

**Kwant** · 29-03-2010, 10:15 PM

Thank you Dennis, I attacked it again after leaving it a couple of days to build up courage, I found that with a steady hand and removal of heat the moment the solder moved it worked. It is not elegant, but it does hold the stone and I was inordinately thrilled to have set my first stone (even though it does move about a bit it sure as h**l will not come out). I will invest in some solders other than that which comes in a syringe i.e EASY, which I thought as a newcomer to the field would suit me.

Next step is to make a bevel. I have the bevel strip but all the stones I ordered are far too big for the bits I am currently making , so I am waiting on a new delivery of more reasonably sized stones, my eyes were bigger than my current capabilities.

I would like to add, that vinegar and salt warmed up appears to make a satisfactory pickle for those of you like me who cannot obtain noxious chemicals by post.

**Gemma** · 30-03-2010, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by Kwant

I would like to add, that vinegar and salt warmed up appears to make a satisfactory pickle for those of you like me who cannot obtain noxious chemicals by post.

Oooh..really? Any particular type of vinegar? Sounds much safer to have around. Can you also pop things in with steel tweezers without turning your silver coppery?

**mizgeorge** · 30-03-2010, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by Gemma

Oooh..really? Any particular type of vinegar? Sounds much safer to have around. Can you also pop things in with steel tweezers without turning your silver coppery?

Gemma, there are lots of alternatives to safety pickle. I prefer alum, but you can use vinegar and salt, cillit bang, coca cola or citric acid amongst other things. You should still use non-ferric tweezers though.