Soldering

[Dennis]

This thread is becoming a resource for beginners and I hope others will join in. What is striking is that like George you can get to use paste solder successfully and even prefer it for your particular needs.

What James did not mention and I hope he will not mind my adding, is that he taught me to cut long parallel slots in strip solder with a saw, before snipping into pallions. This is an altogether superior method for getting even sized pieces which can be picked up with tweezers.

In case you don't know this,as it is rarely mentioned, most people also thin down strip solder before use, by rolling or hammering, so that it is easier to snip. Dennis.

[caroleallen]

What's great about jewellery making is that there's no right or wrong way, just your way. I thin down my solder and then use side cutters to snip off tiny bits.

[Goldsmith]

I forgot to mention that Dennis, thanks. I looked through my old photos and found these ones, as I think photos can sometimes explain better than words.
These are photos of the process of soldering a bezel to a backplate.



James

[CJ57]

I was pretty much trying to explain as James did,he just does it so much better and I forgot to add clean and flux the solder. I cut up the length of the solder , especially hard because it's wider, with my snips rather than sawing and then cut off small bits.

[donnie]

Hi Sandra, What a great wealth of information in this thread, I changed to Auflux and would not go back to Borax a small bottle lasts for ever. The only thing I could add to the thread would be always keep the torch on the move even if you want to concentrate on the joint, still make small movements with the torch. Silver gets a sort of shine on it when its just about to melt, so as George said take some scrap pieces beyond soldering temp. and see this change. Best of luck.

DONNIE




www.silver-n-things.co.

[Sandra]

So much great & valuable advice here, thank you everyone because it helps more than you know!

[caroleallen]

Did you get it to work Sandra?

[silvermagpie]

Solder........Easy or Medium (or both)?

Afternoon all!,
i've been using Medium solder paste for most of my Jewellery-making.
But wondered if i should switch to Easy.
I haven't had any big problems with Medium paste to be fair, but i feel that my more delicate pieces seem to be over-soldered/i.e too much heat, if you get my meaning?
My actual question is, will Easy solder be suitable for most things (light-mediumweight, i don't make heavy or very chunky pieces) or will i still need to use Medium as well?
Thanks in advance!

[Dennis]

It is possible that you are having to heat your work unduly, because medium solder is reluctant to flow, though I don't know about paste. Personally I would use strip solder with Auflux/Auroflux and start with the hard.

If your work shows signs of overheating, it might also be because you are using too fierce a flame. With some torches it is possible to close the air hole a little so that the flame is softer. Also as mentioned above, you should keep the flame moving about so that it just licks the piece.

As you go down the solders, the colour match is not as good and they are slightly less strong.If you were to start with easy solder and have three or more soldering operations to perform, you don't have much in reserve.

There is extra easy solder, but it can show a little and is sometimes a bit weak if, for example you have to hang a pendant, or solder brooch fittings. Also, I'm not sure whether it comes as paste. Dennis.

[mizgeorge]

I only use hard and easy. Hard actually flows better than medium IMO, and I use this as a first option for multi-part pieces, or for those where I'm particularly concerned about the solder colour. For everything else, I use easy.