I made a ring with a setting that essentially consisted of one 6mm round bezel cup set within a larger outer bezel cup. The inner bezel cup was prefabricated, the outer was made from a strip and base plate.
The inner bezel was to have a cabochon, the resulting outer channel was to have a "ring" of twisted wire soldered into it, serving as a decorative border around the inner stone, to be set after soldering was completed.
All the soldering went ok until it came to the last soldering task: soldering the ring of twisted wire into place. I placed the ring of twisted wire into position within the outer hoop, liberally applied flux around it and on the floor of the outer bezel, and wedged four small pallions of easy solder at regular intervals around the ring of twisted wire, wedging them between either the inner or outer bezel walls. I heated the piece from above, the solder flowed, and, although it secured the twist of wire ok, you've probably guessed that some of it flowed upwards on to the wire, ruining its clean lines. I tried filing away the excess solder with bits of emery paper held edge on, but this only ended up making things look more unsightly. I soldered the whole setting off the ring shank and binned it.
Can anyone suggest how I should have gone about things to avoid solder getting on to the upper, visible side of the twisted wire? Was getting flux on to the upper surface of the wire my downfall (on the basis that what the flux reaches the solder will probably reach too)? Should I have sweat soldered the outer hoop (i.e. the floor of the outer bezel) then put the twisted wire into position and then simply re-heated the sweated-on solder? Would this have reduced the tendency for the solder to flow upwards?
I did think about sweat soldering (and have done it successfully already on two other different projects), but my main concern (apart from the risk of re-opening one or more of the 5 previous solder joints) was that if I used the sweat soldering technique I wouldn't be able to see when the solder flowed as the floor of the outer bezel was entirely hidden from view by the twisted wire placed over it. I figured that wedging pallions at intervals around the twisted wire would at least allow me to see the solder flow. I did see it flow; the only problem was that some of it flowed where I didn't want it to.
Before I re-attempt the same project any advice would be appreciated.
I would probably have sweat soldered Also you should probably have fluxed underneath the wire heated it to tack it off and then placed the wire on top and soldered it together heating from underneath to get the solder to run. The flux should get the to run but as long as it's tacked and feels secure it'll be fine
The reason the solder ran into the wire would be because the wire heated before the main body so if using pallions again heating from underneath the wire rather than above should work too
I'd agree about heating from below. I'd also flatten the bottom of the twisted ring (by filing) before placing it to ensure good contact. You'll probably find you need to use a lot less solder than you think as well.
The one thing I didn't mention explains why I decided not to heat from below, which I normally do do when soldering bezel walls (i.e. strips) on to base plates. In this case I'd already soldered the inner bezel cup on to 0.7mm sheet (partly in order to lift the rim of the inner cup far enough above the level of the outer to allow me to rub over the bezel wall when setting the stone). The 0.7mm sheet was then cut and filed to size leaving a perimeter of metal just large enough to fit within wall of the larger outer bezel cup, which itself had a 0.4mm base. I then soldered the inner bezel cup (on its base) to the floor of the outer bezel, producing a laminated base thickness of 1.1mm. I was afraid that if I then heated from below to fix the wire in place it would take so long for the heat to travel through to the upper surface that I might melt the wall of the outer bezel cup or at least degrade the solder join before the twisted wire etc. got up to temperature. Maybe I was being unnecessarily cautious because I was step soldering, but it was a case of balancing two evils.
I calculated the number of solder joins wrongly before. There were actually 7 previous solder joins by the time I came to solder the twisted wire into place.
Just a suggestion, but I would probably close the outer bezel strip and twisted ring (both with hard solder), and then solder all three parts (outer bezel, twisted ring, inner bezel) in one go (easy solder) to reduce the number of steps involved. Though I should confess I rather like seat of pants soldering...
I too would advise soldering from below, especially given the laminated thickness of the base plate that you have mentioned,.....that was always going to need more heat than anything else. I would have also given the odd 'blast' (touch) of heat to the top, to try to ensure even heating of all parts....I think George's tip of filing the bottom of the twisted wire to ensure good contact, and Caroline's of good fluxing are essential.....I am assuming that you are going through the grades of solder with your 7 joins, from hard to extra easy??
Also, very careful application of rouge to the upper visible aspects of the twisted wire and other joints, would reduce the risk of solder flowing in these areas....(I believe tippex works well too, but I haven't tried it myself)!!
finally, you could leave the final filing and buffing of the outer bezel and base plate until after all soldering is finished. Application of heat often causes previous soldered parts to 'suck in' from the edge, so final filing /finishing/ buffing can remove any unevenness in the soldered joins/edges.
I think if you are starting again I would solder it in a oner. I would be reheating and lifting out the twisted wire and replacing it with a fresh one, but that's me. Its always worth a try
Many thanks for the further replies. There's much useful stuff to think about there.
The soldering sequence went as follows (as far as I remember):
1.Solder ring shank closed with hard solder;
2. Solder inner bezel cup to base plate with hard solder;
3. Solder bezel strip (for outer bezel cup) closed with hard;
4. Solder bezel strip on to base plate with medium;
5. Solder setting (i.e. outer bezel cup) on to ring with medium.
6. Solder inner bezel-cup-on-base-plate to outer base plate with easy;
7. Solder ends of twisted wire closed with hard;
8. Solder twisted wire in with easy.
I could have used extra easy somewhere along the line, and I have used it before on two other fabrication jobs, but I've read that it should only be used for repair, so I thought I'd avoid it. Avoiding extra easy except for repair may be a purist's standpoint, though, and chiefly concerns the question of colour match; I'm not sure about this.
I did consider desoldering the soldered in wire and doing it again, but unfortunately what I also didn't mention is that before I finally decided I couldn't live with the wire the way it was I went ahead and set the stone (an amethyst cab). Before I binned the setting I did try getting the stone out (thinking I could reuse it) but pressing down and outwards with a small screwdriver on the rim of the bezel cup only succeeded in wedging the stone in more tightly. I gave up on that and when I reheated to desolder the setting my amethyst cab turned from a nice purple to what looked like clear glass - with cracks all over it.
One other thing. I didn't plan to do anything with the top edge of the outer bezel wall (i.e. turn it in over the twisted wire). I just planned to polish it and leave it as it was. However, it did look a bit boring that way, I must admit. If I did it again, would it be do-able to give it a millegrain finish? I haven't got a millegrain wheel, I've never tried using one, and I don't know what size wheel would be best for a 0.3mm edge. One other doubt is whether the top edge of the unsupported bezel strip (about 2mm high) would stand up to the pressure of a millegrain wheel being run over it or would buckle under the pressure. I've no experience to tell me the answer to this.
Here I am putting my oar in very late Mark, but there far too many stages for such a small job. This methodical building up of the mass of silver, means that you had to use increasing amounts of heat on ever smaller components, resulting in solder scattering due to the uncontrolled rush of heat (and the risk of melting wires).
As has already been said by Caroline, the mount should have been soldered in just one stage (two for scaredicats) so that the twisted wire decoration joined by merely mopping up spare solder. George has already pointed out that very little solder would have fixed the twisted wire, enclosed in an outer wall.
You would also solder in semi-darkness to see any accidental overheating during the process. Once the mount was completed, you would fix it to the shank with easy solder.
By joining two parts of roughly equal weight you would have had no trouble at this final stage in bringing the two together. For instance this mount for the large pearl in my recent post in 'Show and Tell' was made in two goes from six components with hard solder only to allow me to dome the petals, before adding the post. Otherwise I would have done it in one. When complete it was added to the double shank with easy solder. Dennis.
Thanks for your input, Dennis, and for the picture of your impressive handiwork.
I made the beginner's mistake of trying to break the work down into too many "manageable" stages (faffing, in other words) and spoiling the work in the process. I'm still also probably making the beginner's mistake of overestimating the amount of solder needed for certain tasks, though I am slowly improving in that department; I made a bail and soldered that on to a pendant the other day and there was no cleaning up to do at all. But then I realised that I'd put the bail on the wrong way round with the open loop facing the front, so my sense of triumph was short-lived.
On the subject of the millegrain (or milligrain?) wheel, I've looked in Untracht, and though he gives a good account of the purpose and use of millegrain wheels he doesn't say how you choose the right size wheel for the job. Any help there would be appreciated.
Soldering on Twisted Wire Decoration
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