Sandra, you need to contain your soldering in a large roasting tin to be safe from fires. If necessari cut and bend down the front. Dennis.
Sandra, you need to contain your soldering in a large roasting tin to be safe from fires. If necessari cut and bend down the front. Dennis.
Yes since then I have a steel block underneath but I need to work something else out. Not sure why everything i learn is always the hard way. I love that revolving stand, I'd like to find something similar.
I inherited one of those stands... it is a beast and it growls at me from the corner.
I use 300mm x 300mm soldering board as my basis with broken bits to sit at the back and side if I am annealing, or doing something big (which isn't often, but does happen) That hasn't failed me yet. Heat is important, but control of the right flame will add wonders to the skills. I learned to solder using a pencil torch, a get stuffed glo-gas hand burner and a Sievert. Things improved when I started to use the little smith torch. The torch cannot be an understatement when soldering. It is what gives heat and you are what takes it away. I have less accidents, less melting in the wrong places, soldering, less fire stain (better use of fluxes) and less grey hair (okay, I lied on the last part, but hair dyes does the world of wonders for an older gal unable to cope with any hint of a silver slither in her hair). I love soldering, it is one of my favourite parts of putting a piece together. I soldered 11 parts to make up some ivy yesterday, it makes me happy to light the flame and heat the metal. I wear flame glare reducing goggles to protect my eyes too.
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My beast which also revolves was made for me 35 years ago and I've used nothing since with the sievert torch I bought then. It has fire bricks and a broken honeycomb and various asst bits of binding wire for soldering on. I'm loathe to move on to anything else when this all works for me
It had never occurred to me until my setting tutor mentioned that charcoal continues to burn long after you've finished soldering on it. Seems so obvious now!!! I don't often use my charcoal block, but when I do, I'm very, very careful with it.
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Somehow I never thought about my charcoal block as the same material we use in the BBQ until that happened.....Yes I need to invest in a proper torch and a soldering stand. I know now that my interest in creating jewellery isn't a passing fad, I really love it and it's worth the investment to buy better equipment. I think about jewellery making all the time, in fact I was giving myself a pedicure last week and found myself wondering if my Dremel might do the job better.
Thanks Dennis...i shall have a proper read through it this evening and have a think about what I might buy. I think i have been feeling a little intimidated about the idea of moving up to a gas canister/cylinder as i do my work in a spare bedroom (visions of die hard-esk explosions and incinerating my house!). I guess it is just a case of taking proper safety steps to reduce that risk!
I have felt exactly the same and if you look at my posts you will see that I have only ever used DIY hand held torches. I chose the Taymar, now called CampinGaz because I liked the look of it and there was a stockist for canisters nearby. There is also the Go-System.
In recent times there has been a problem with the torch flaring when a canister is new, I think because they overfill them. It gets better if the torch is left standing to get hot before use and quickly behaves better after some gas has been used up. I don't know whether the Go System torches have similar troubles.
I have also added an unauthorised modification to reduce the air intake, when I want a softer flame.
I use a barbecue base as my hearth and it has a metal guard at the back against stray flames. Lastly there is a fire-blanket nearby, ready for instant use.
Dennis.
It is all about taking the right safety precautions. Most homes have gas cookers, gas fires and the inevitable gas boilers. There are connections on all of these. Unless the equipment is faulty, as long as you do things by the book when setting things up and operating the torch you'll be OK.
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