Protecting glass beads when soldering sterling silver

[Jamjar]

Hi everyone,

I wonder if you can give me some advice. I have recently made a sterling silver cuff which has glass beads woven onto it (see photo attached). I finished the ends just by curling them into spirals and I am very pleased with how it looks. However, I am thinking of doing something similar but finishing the ends by encasing in a sterling silver end cap that would need to be soldered on. My question is, how do I protect the glass beads while soldering? Someone mentioned Technoflux Cool Paste or Kool Jool, which is apparently something which can be painted onto the glass beads as a sort of heat barrier. Does anyone have any experience of working with these products? Alternatively, any other ideas?

Many thanks,

Jayne

[medusa]

I have used thermogel but I think the concern with your design would be getting all parts hot enough. I don't know about the other products you mentioned, but for the thermogel to work I think the whole thing save the ends would need to be covered. The ends from what I can see look pretty cool to me as they are.

[Jamjar]

Thanks so much for your reply. Reading about Thermogel it seems that you need to put a pretty thick layer on and if I would need to cover the beads AND the silver (apart from the ends) as you suggest it might be a nightmare job and quite expensive too. Does the Thermogel brush on easily?

[Dennis]

As Liz says, you will need a lot of heat to get the solder to flow and personally I wouldn't even try it. Could you rivet some ends on? they can be quite decorative.

Below I used tube rivets with soldered on heads, which do not need too much hammering. You can make them double sided by using a smaller tube and gluing it into the first one with Araldite. Come to think of it you could devise enclosed ends to glue on in the first place. Dennis.

[Jamjar]

Hi Dennis. That bracelet is really fab and really unique! Rivetting is a good idea, but would the end cap move around as there is no solid centre to attach them through (just a few strands of thinnish pieces of wire)? Wasn't keen on gluing as would worry the glue wouldn't hold long term. Maybe I will have to do a version using sterling silver beads instead of the glass beads then I wouldn't have this issue

[GreenSnail]

Thanks so much for your reply. Reading about Thermogel it seems that you need to put a pretty thick layer on and if I would need to cover the beads AND the silver (apart from the ends) as you suggest it might be a nightmare job and quite expensive too. Does the Thermogel brush on easily?

When it says thick it means thick- you need to sort of pile it on at least 10mm thick, I usually pile on the whole container for each job. It's quite messy green stuff which isn't fun to clean off. You can reuse your tub minus the scorched bits so it's not too bad cost-wise. At the place I'm working they have a tub and it's at least 6 months old.....it gets used every couple of days. Not trying to tell you to use it, seriously, do what Dennis says

[mizgeorge]

I think it might be possible - though I'd bury the piece in wet sand rather than trying to protect that many beads with any sort of heat protecting product, but I'd be worried about the finish on those beads, which I don't think would take kindly to any sort of heat exposure - they look like they've got some sort of ab coating.

A good 2 part epoxy would do the job well if you wanted to glue them. The alternative would be to leave one long wire in the centre, use a drilled endcap and rivet the last wire (or draw a bead on it if you fancy risking heat!) after passing it through the hole.

[Jamjar]

Thanks for all those suggestions and advice - will give it some thought and see what I decide to try!

Many thanks,

Jayne