Permanent marker and PMC

[ps_bond]

Given fired PMC is porous, how readily does a permanent marker clean off the surface?

I may need to weld some...

[caroleallen]

I'm sure you could burn it off with a torch Peter. I use a sharpie pen on sterling all the time and it burns off.

[ps_bond]

Heat sensitive stones around, hence welding not soldering. My gut feel is that it'd be better to weld tabs in and set the chunk rather than welding it in place - the porosity of the PMC bothers me. What tends to happen with larger voids (such as on really lousy castings) is the air behind the metal gets heated and blows out the weld.

Mind you, I could probably widen the beam and clean any black off that way.

[vsilvered]

Hi Peter,

I've found that a full kiln firing of the metal clay element at 1650 F/898 C for 2 hours and work hardening with a chasing hammer afterwards helps strengthen the piece.

[ps_bond]

Good to know, but I'm not sure how that helps me? At the moment, I have no idea how readily this stuff laser welds. These are being supplied as existing charms to be welded into a locket - or at least that's the idea, it may not be feasible.

[vsilvered]

Whacking the silver metal clay element with a chasing hammer (if the design can stand it) helps harden the metal - this is assuming the piece was fully fired at 1650 F for 2 hours.

Maybe, if you can find out what type of metal clay the pieces were made of (Art Clay or PMC3), how the pieces were fired (torch or kiln) and for how long, you could try and do a test with some of the material yourself and see how it stands up to the laser welding.

I totally understand your caution about this. I would suggest finding out as much as you can about how these pieces were created before you embark on the work.

Hope it all goes well.

[Dennis]

Plenty of alcohol washes off permanent marker. Dennis.