Borax dish

[Moon Willow]

Interest responses. Seems to be a personal thing for the most part. I've never seen borax in action - does it readily flow through the piece via capillary action or is it easier to control where you want it to go? Sometimes when I'm trying to do something finicky and don't want to bother with a solder resistance (say when making a hinge) I find myself wishing Batterns wasn't quite so flow-y.

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Well if you need to control your flux you need to mix it to a thicker paste and put less onto your piece (stops it spreading)

Soldering a seam or a bezel (when making a box or locket) I always warm the piece before painting on my borax (paste)
this burns off and eliminates any excess grease and helps the flux to travel into and through any seams you're about to solder.

No matter what flux you use you can contain your solder by first painting on jewellers rouge (solder won't run onto it)

Carlton

[Goldsmith]

Yep all of those except the baton, I actually make an appearance on BBC 4 program "Britain's Oldest Families" Toye.... blink and you'll miss me,
I think I'm holding a MBE (You Tube)

We still produce "Order of the Bath" Royal Victoria Order as well as the Central Chancery

Just notice the dirty borax cone in the dish, tut tut.... folks always make sure your borax is clean.

Ha ha ha James I love that picture.

Carlton

I did watch the Toye program when it was on the TV, I shall have a look on Youtube. Have you seen this film on Youtube, Carlton, I am on it for a few seconds piercing an egg; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdn3...ature=youtu.be

[Moon Willow]

Just clocked it James and it has been downloaded to watch later (looking for tips) your left hand must have
ached for a while after that impressive piece of sawpiercing.

Was that the boss who gave it the once over after you finished ?

Carlton

[metalsmith]

Cool. You mentioned this some time back and I couldn't find it at the time.

I'm not sure the naff LCD dynamic graphics jewellery line ever caught on (but maybe I'm missing something). Miniaturising the computer and directly feeding into the nervous system: now there's a man ahead of his time!

Is there not a resources section of the forum this could go - or stickies?

[susieq]

Soldering with me is still somewhat hit and miss although getting better with advice given on the forum - I generally use borax but recently for a chain with lots of jump rings I have used auflux.

The advantage of auflux was that my pallions of solder didn't dance like demented fleas as I heated the piece - the pallions stayed where they were placed before flowing; the downside was that as I am not very experienced in soldering and it was hard to tell when the rings were the correct temperature for the solder to flow as there was no change in colour of the auflux.

With borax, I can see the various changes in colour of the flux and have a much better understanding of when piece is heated enough for the solder to flow; the downside is that I need to heat slowly to stop the solder jumping off the join first and even then no matter how careful I am they often still jump off. I have tried pick soldering, but have had little success at this as once balled up the solder seems to stick to everything but the join I am trying to attach it to.

My biggest problem, other than crappy solder joins, is fire scale. I tend to just use borax on the metal to protect it, but sometimes it seems to flake off when heating. I'm assuming this is because the metal isn't completely grease free, but I pickle and rinse first which I would have thought would clean it enough, but doesn't. I do use the green scourers/emery paper to clean up joints first, but find it hard not to end up rounding up the edges I'm wanting to solder.

I guess the answer is practice practice and then practice some more.

[Goldsmith]

Just clocked it James and it has been downloaded to watch later (looking for tips) your left hand must have
ached for a while after that impressive piece of sawpiercing.

Was that the boss who gave it the once over after you finished ?

Carlton

Yes Carlton, that was one of my two bosses, the late Peter McCabe, when they were filming he wanted to be the star and did all of the talking.My other boss David McCarty kept out of the way. Peter McCabe was an enameller who also owned Kempson & Mauger, the enamelling section of the company. The other boss David McCarty is a fine goldsmith who is still working. He was Cartier trained and he sat at the bench next to me for 9 years. I was making a lot of eggs that year so I entered three into the annual Goldsmith's Craft Council competition and that year I won 1st, 2nd. and a Commended in the Senior Smallworkers section along with the Asprey Award.
That photo was taken by Andrew Lawson when he interviewed me for inclusion in his book "Handmade in London" .

James

[ps_bond]

I've not heard anything back from CBC about it (having asked permission - I'm not certain they're bothered about copyright at that age), so I'll put the video & audio through some filters and redo the thing "real soon now".

[Goldsmith]

I've not heard anything back from CBC about it (having asked permission - I'm not certain they're bothered about copyright at that age), so I'll put the video & audio through some filters and redo the thing "real soon now".

That would be good of you Peter, it has had quite a few viewings so far I see since I mentioned it on the Facebook groups I am in. Some of the workshops shown on the film are history now and a lot of the craftsmen shown are not with us anymore, which is a pity.

James

[CJ57]

Thanks for all your input on the original question guys, I wouldn't have bothered had it been for me but its some of the equipment this workshop asked me to buy http://www.garvaldedinburgh.org.uk and as they've been waiting since Aug for the order to arrive I don't want to send them something I'm not sure is fit for purpose :/

[metalsmith]

the downside is that I need to heat slowly to stop the solder jumping off the join first and even then no matter how careful I am they often still jump off. I have tried pick soldering, but have had little success at this as once balled up the solder seems to stick to everything but the join I am trying to attach it to.

...sometimes it seems to flake off when heating. I'm assuming this is because the metal isn't completely grease free, but I pickle and rinse first which I would have thought would clean it enough, but doesn't.

It sounds like you are hitting some of the problems that I was commonly finding. My cut jump rings were good, but they were small relative to the pallions. I didn't want the jump rings to stick together so that I would take the heat off immediately the solder began to run. The outcome was that the rings were lumpy and took a lot of manual tidying.

As a next step, I used open jump rings alternated with soldered closed jump rings. Those soldered closed individually were better of course because the solder was left to run evenly. I took a look at various pastes and opted to make a trial with my own using http://www.cooksongold.com/Solders/S...prcode-PTI-000. This is kept in a test tube with Borax which I grind to a milky (and very runny) consistency. Soldering is done with a paint brush in which I choose to sweep up as much solder powder as I choose from the bottom of the test tube and dab off the excess powder / liquid until I have just what I wish to apply remaining on the brush.

The mix is applied from the brush to the join and runs into it from the start although the coarse-ground remains on the join as the join is too fine for the powder to enter. However, it doesn't have to sit - as the pallions do - on top of the jump ring and 'find' the joint to seal. Hope this helps