Flux As Glue. The Pangolin Revisited.

[Dennis]

When I started Project Pangolin, I tried every which way to replicate the scaly surface and finally settled for a roll texture using mesh.

I would very much have liked to use individual scales sliced from square wire and slightly domed, with a little solder sweated into the hollows, but was unable to keep them still enough when applying the torch. I also tried using paste solder, but the scales just skated on the curved surface of the formed body.

This eventually lead me to experiment with gum tragacanth, or at least the manmade version, tylose powder, which is used to firm up sugar for cake decorations. Just a small pinch, spatulated into Auflux will improve its adhesive properties and burn away cleanly during soldering.

So this version was done, dipping each solder primed scale into my gluey flux and then arranging them in rows, about six at a time for sweating onto the background made from sheet as before.

It isn’t yet completely successful, but I thought promising enough to show you. This pangolin is having a bad scale day, but with a little more patience and refinement, it could be improved at the third attempt.

Link to Part 1: http://www.cooksongold.com/forum/sho...light=pangolin

Body made from 0.8mm sheet
Scales cut from 2.5mm wire (about 150 of them)
ClassiKool Edible Tylose Powder.
Size: 65mmx27mm. Dennis.