Newbie ring repair help

[Scott]

Hello all!

What a great Forum! I would be very grateful if someone could offer some advice or guidance on how to proceed with a repair I am thinking of attempting.

My wife’s wedding ring is 9ct yellow gold with a Tree of Life 9ct rose gold inlay (not a spinner) The inlay has broken in half and is now detached.



A high street jeweller quoted me a price for the repair that made me think a divorce would be cheaper, only a little shy of a new one, and frankly, I just don’t have that to spare. Then, after looking at some videos of jewellery soldering I was thinking, well, how hard can it be! That’s meant to be a joke btw, I know things that look relatively simple only do so because they’re done by people with skill and years of experience and that has a cost, but I like giving things a go, and it looks like fun.

I’m not sure of the questions to ask, but for a start, this is the process as far as I know:

For the solder I was looking at the 9ct solder wire Easy 0.50mm. Is Easy the correct one or should I use Medium?

Clean everything thoroughly

Dip in Borax and Alcohol solution.

Secure ring with inlay in place.

Cut small piece of wire solder and place on joint or is it better to apply with a pick?

Start heating on side opposite the joint, bring heat up to the joint until the solder flows. But when doing the other side, would I need to apply heat directly to the joint to avoid melting the first?

I think the heating process is where I’m most likely to go wrong, as I assume the yellow and rose golds have different temp ranges.
Plus, I’m trying to not only re-join the broken inlay but fix it to the ring, which I’m hoping would happen at the same time. But I don’t know!

I am prepared to make mistakes, but I suppose my main question really is, as a newbie should even attempt it with so little knowledge of any potential pitfalls?

Thanks for looking and for any help offered.

[ps_bond]

My immediate reaction is that I'd suggest doing a fair amount of soldering practice before attempting it, especially on something with sentimental value.
A secondary thought is that the inlay wasn't originally soldered to the band (as you've observed), although it might be more resilient if it were.
Personally, I'd laser it back together - that way I could rejoin just the inlay and clean it up.

As for the technique, I wouldn't use borax & alcohol, but a borax cone with water. Grind it to a thin cream consistency in a borax dish.
If I were soldering it, I'd probably use binding wire to hold the inlay in place - if the inlay has bent at all then this would need to be addressed first.
I'd prefer to use hard solder, but I'd warm the piece to see if I could oxidise any existing joints which would give me fair warning and might suggest the use of a lower temp solder.
Pick placement and pallion use are both valid techniques; I use the latter more than the former (but use both as the mood takes me).
Soldering gold is slightly different to soldering silver - the heat conduction is much lower, so I tend not to worry about getting the opposite side completely up to heat first. I'd heat either side of the joint; you need to allow the temperature of the metal to melt the solder, not direct flame heat.

Colour matching of solders can be fun, BTW.

I'd really strongly suggest learning to solder silver well before attempting this...

[enigma]

Yes definitely practise first!
What torch are you using?
My main worry would be that you accidentally melt the ends of the inlay which would ruin the piece.
Perhaps it may be worth getting other quotes for a professional repair, I wouldn't have thought it should be too expensive tbh.

[Scott]

My immediate reaction is that I'd suggest doing a fair amount of soldering practice before attempting it, especially on something with sentimental value.
A secondary thought is that the inlay wasn't originally soldered to the band (as you've observed), although it might be more resilient if it were.
Personally, I'd laser it back together - that way I could rejoin just the inlay and clean it up.

As for the technique, I wouldn't use borax & alcohol, but a borax cone with water. Grind it to a thin cream consistency in a borax dish.
If I were soldering it, I'd probably use binding wire to hold the inlay in place - if the inlay has bent at all then this would need to be addressed first.
I'd prefer to use hard solder, but I'd warm the piece to see if I could oxidise any existing joints which would give me fair warning and might suggest the use of a lower temp solder.
Pick placement and pallion use are both valid techniques; I use the latter more than the former (but use both as the mood takes me).
Soldering gold is slightly different to soldering silver - the heat conduction is much lower, so I tend not to worry about getting the opposite side completely up to heat first. I'd heat either side of the joint; you need to allow the temperature of the metal to melt the solder, not direct flame heat.

Colour matching of solders can be fun, BTW.

I'd really strongly suggest learning to solder silver well before attempting this...

Thank you for such fantastic and detailed advice, exactly what I needed. I now have some idea of the difficulties involved and it’s clear that to stand any chance of success, I will need to practice first and only attempt the ring repair when confident I can produce repeatable results.
Thank you again for taking the time to help!

[Scott]

Thank you, Enigma. I have a “cooks torch” and a cheap needle torch both Butane. You’re right, I should get other quotes. But if I do try this I will need to practice, a lot!

[Dennis]

Get ps Bond to quote for a laser repair, or if he is busy, go to our member Geti Titanium, who also can do it.
If you plan to take this skill further, you have a deal of learning to do.

The least expensive practice material is copper earth wire, extracted from an old electric cable, used with borax and hard silver solder.
Order solder as wire and you can specify short lengths, rather than buy a whole strip or panel.

You will also need a small hand torch and means of heating alum solution in a small ceramic dish as a pickle. It's not rocket science but many beginners get into trouble over it. However we all enjoy troubleshooting for you.

The most common reason for failure is that the torch used does not put out enough heat. Dennis.

[Scott]

Many thanks Dennis, especially for the suggestion of a cheap medium to practice on, a very good idea! I did have a feeling I might be running before I could walk with this and all this info has really helped me see the learning curve involved. I still want to try some things but I think for the ring, I am probably better off leaving it to someone less likely to turn it into a lump of metal.