Hello, I would be obliged for suggestions how to keep silver granules in place while I try to solder them around a ring? Is there a product out there which acts a silver "glue" to keep the balls from sliding off? The option of soldering them on when the ring is still flat and in a form of a wire is out of the question I'm afraid. I've been awake at night. Best regards.
Show us a design of what you want to do, we need to know how many granules, what size of granules. If it is just a few spheres then clamps could work, or in some cases super glue, just don't breath in the fumes when heating for soldering.
Hi. If you are using lots of little balls, you might try Granulation by fusion: Put the ring and balls in pickle with a piece of iron wire, or some nails until they are lightly copper plated. Then dip them in a mixture of Auflux and gum tragacanth, or gum Arabic.
Put them in position, allow to dry and heat gently in subdued light until you see them fuse. Let them air cool. If any drop off, have a second go. (Suggestion from Anastasia young, The Workbench Guide To Jewellery Techniques).
If they are just a few, make pits with a round burr to resist rolling away, place one or two with the ring on edge and solder. Then rotate the ring and add more. With a little care, you can use the same grade of solder throughout.
For this I would steady the ring in a grooved, funnel shaped hole in my block. My quick picture below is just to illustrate the placement of the ring. Dennis.
I'm fairly sure I read in a book about fused silver jewellery, where they were soldering small silver balls to a flattened silver ring, they stuck the balls down temporarily with honey. Apparently it burns off as you solder.
I think the book was by Liz Jones but again I'm not 100%
That's excellent advice there Dennis and you've taught me a couple of nice tricks, especially as I've been doing a little bit of this kind of work lately.
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Balls that keep falling off
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