Soldering Woes

[pink]

Hello. I'm a bit of a beginner regarding soldering but gaining confidence!

I've made a couple of silver cones. They have a solder joint. I want to solder them onto a plain silver ring band which also has a solder joint. I have used hard solder so far. I plan to use medium to attach the two cones together and then easy to attach this 'construction' to the ring band. Will I risk the cones collapsing by applying new heat onto a previous solder joint? Is there anything I can do to protect this joint?

Thank you.

Alison

[caroleallen]

Hi Alison, I think I would stick with hard solder to join the cones. If you then use easy to solder them onto the ring, it should be fine. If you have any worries, you can always use some heat protecting paste on the join.

[Dennis]

Yes, many of us have found quite independently that medium solder doesn't always flow well, so we have given up on it.

However you are doing things in the right order. It is always best to join parts of nearly equal size. Joining a very small part to a much larger part will create heating problems. More so if you only have a small torch. Dennis.

[pink]

Thanks for your replies. I've since tried soldering cones to each other and it has worked!

[LydiaNiz]

Why is medium solder rubbish? I only ever use hard, easy and rarely extra easy if I can help it, but thought it was just me.

[ps_bond]

It is? Easy & extra are the ones I despise for their colour & poor flowing characteristics; I usually try to use hard for everything.

Soldering mokume is a different issue - you can't heat it that much without the layers melting into each other, so I've just started trying some medium paste solder. Not sure I like it - the joints seem to look pitted and require a lot of polishing back.

[Nick martin]

As has been said, I also find that medium solder doesn't flow particularly well. Tried silver solder paste to but as per Peter's experience, it left the join pitted no matter how precise and clean I was. I will never ever use paste again as it is bloody awful stuff!

Nick

[mizgeorge]

As has been said, I also find that medium solder doesn't flow particularly well. Tried silver solder paste to but as per Peter's experience, it left the join pitted no matter how precise and clean I was. I will never ever use paste again as it is bloody awful stuff!

Nick

Have to say it - but if you had bad results, you might not have been using it correctly. I've switched to paste for a huge number of things and get on with it brilliantly. Part of this is that I have to work very quickly, and don't have time to mess around with flux and snipping. It does involve a bit more care in heating metal, rather than solder, but the results can be excellent, especially for small pieces or awkward spaces.

[ps_bond]

Have to say it - but if you had bad results, you might not have been using it correctly.

What I found with the hard paste was that it was vital to get the metal up to temperature as fast as possible without heating the paste if at all possible, otherwise the stuff sat in a charred lump. Then it flows wonderfully. The medium - not sure, I might try holding the heat fractionally longer.

[caroleallen]

I use paste quite a lot too. It's great for "glueing" little hearts and flowers onto rings and bangles and of course, I wouldn't use anything else for chains and jump rings. You do definitely have to heat the piece before the solder though, but isn't that true of all solders?