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Top Jewelery Making Tips For Silver Soldering

Posted on | December 14, 2009 | No Comments

Learning how silver solder is an crucial skill in making good quality jewelery. The relevance of silver soldering is one that should be approached with a brief caution at first, as you are using high climatic characteristic blowtorches to liquidize the solder onto the metal. It can be very easy to make mistakes, so a plain guide to the basics should help you to reduce the mistakes and prevent you from wasting too many resources.

Types of solder

There are four fundamental grades of silver solder and they are classified according to their melting points as ex-easy, easy, median and hard. Ex-easy and easy silver solders melt at a lower climatic characteristic and are best used for repair work or when a lower temperature is required. If solder is required at two or three joints near each other, it is best to start with Hard moving down to Easy to prevent melting the prior soldered joint.

Preparation

Before silver soldering, ensure that the surface you’re working on is completely cleaned. Any grease (even from a fingerprint) can affect how well the solder ‘takes’ to the metal, so clean the piece watchfully before beginning. You can then dissolve the silver to be joined by a means know as annealing by applying the flame of a blowtorch to the area that needs to be soldered until the metal heats up to a stolid pink colour. Check that there are no gaps between the two pieces of metal that you want to solder. Silver solder acts in a capillary motion when heated, design that it flows along the path of least resistance. Any gaps will allow the solder to run down on one side of the ridge and the resulting finish will be poor.

Flux

Flux is a chemical cleaning agent that removes any remaining silver oxide from the surface of the finding and the solder itself and allows the silver solder to flow freely, preventing ‘blobbing’. The best flux is a borax paste, which is in a while applied to the joint.. Silver soldering without the use of flux is not advised, as the resulting finish will be poor and the solder will have a trend to pit, leaving an uneven and rather unpleasant bond.

Applying the heat

Once the joint is coated on both surfaces with flux, you can then use heat to the joint. Torch soldering is probably one of the most common methods, Choose a torch with an adaptable flame size. This ensures that you do not overheat and scorch the metal, dulling the surface and even potentially buckling the metal. The flame shouldn’t rest over single area for any length of time – rather the torch should be moved constantly to prevent the metal overheating. Once the chastise climatic characteristic has been reached, the solder should vary form from a solid square to a liquid and flow evenly into the joint. Alternatively, if the silver solder is in wire form, the tip is fed carefully onto the metal where it should liquidize on touching and once again, flow smoothly into the lode.

Finishing

Once the silver soldering has been completed and the piece has cooled, it can be cleaned to remove any residual flux by soaking it in hot water. If this proves difficult, a weak solvent (5-10%) of sulfuric acid can be used followed by rinsing the piece in hot water. This method is known as “pickling” However, if you are incorporating gemstones into your work, be aware that even a weak acid resolution can harm the surface of more porous stones.

Safety

Even small gas torches operate at greatly high temperatures, so ensure that your workbench is suitably protected and that you have the right safety tool such as goggles and thick gloves to work with. A small fire extinguisher is also a useful addition to any working environment where any unclad flames may be used to prevent small fires from spreading. Your workroom should be well ventilated.

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