My hearth is littered with bits of honeycomb board, which as Caroline has said, becomes really fragile when heated to red. It also absorbs lots of heat when trying to heat a piece from underneath. So not much use for sweat soldering.
So what use is it? Well veneer pins fit it quite well, so the straight lines and right angles combined with the pins, allow you to align and hold metal for soldering.
I use the smooth side for this. It is also worth resting the honeycomb on another solid block though, in case the pins fall right through. Dennis.
It's also a real devil for pallions of solder disappearing into as well. If my torch is a bit high and the solder hasn't tacked to the flux then they often just fly off and disappear down a hole, very frustrating!! In fact not sure what use it has other than as Dennis said pinning things in place
that honeycomb stuff is so fragile. I have bits of it all over!
It is good for getting the heat underneath, but a wig can do just the same. (not the hairy kind) Although that has its pitfalls with solder going off and is not flat so you have to be really, really careful not to overheat and collapse your work (early lessons learned very well - I am sure I still find bits of silver in there still!)
the problem with wires, and all the other aids becomes apparent when the heat is being drawn away from what you actually need to heat of course. I have found using smaller bases like the clips James and many others (if you read the books) explore. I also use cotter pins as they come in many shapes and sizes. Not to everyone's taste. But they work for me.
I got my mesh from a silver clay shop I think. Prop it up on solder blocks and all is good. I never tried the honeycomb so it is interesting hearing about it
I haven't used my honeycomb board for ages, my first one slowly disintegrated after a lot of use, mainly used for wiring pieces together and holding them in place securely through the board. Hhhmmm, may well think of giving it an airing!!
I must be in the minority for liking my honeycombe boards! I have two, one is ancient and has lots of divots and lines carved in it for soldering particular things and one is only a year or so old and I like to keep it neat and clean for soldering flat things.
I guess I mainly solder smallish things though - maybe I'd like them less if I had to solder cuffs!
Resurrecting an old thread but stumbled across it while searching 'Cousins' on here,as considering placing an order through them.
Anyway, when I first started sweat soldering I didn't have any mesh so had a quick think and went and took the mesh off the top of an instant bbq! Propped it up on two soldering blocks on their ends and still use disposable bbq mesh now
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