Soldered glass pendant frame necklace created with Simply Swank's soldering kit.
Solder is a confusing topic. There are two completely different soldering methods used in jewelry making, yet people rarely explain which type they’re talking about – much the way people say they spent the weekend simply “at the lake.” (If they are your friends, you do know which lake … and hopefully this post will help you make friends with solder!)
Solder is a metal alloy that is melted to connect or coat metal pieces. I think of it as hot metal glue. Soldering is the act of melting and applying solder. The two soldering methods are:
- Soldering with a torch. Often called hard soldering, brazing or silver soldering, although copper, brass, gold and other metals can be torch soldered. There are different grades of hard solder (which melt at different temperatures, and just to confuse things further, are called soft, medium and hard). We’ll talk more about this type of soldering in a future post.
- Soldering with a soldering iron. This is often referred to as soft soldering, and is used with base metals (like copper and brass) and plated metals. The solder is made mostly of tin and has a (relatively) low melting temperature. Never use a soldering iron with precious metal jewelry: it will ruin it.
Therefore, if jewelry is made of silver or gold, it has to be torch soldered. Successful soldering requires heating the metal pieces, not just melting the solder, so if the piece is very large or thick, it’s probably torch soldered as well. Now that you know the general soldering landscape, we are ready to jump into Lake Soldering Iron!
Mollie's Poppy Field soldered pendant necklace uses two #41-254-1 fold-over crimp ends instead of jump rings as hangers.
First off, not all soldering irons are created equal. There are many varieties on the market and most were not designed for jewelry making. The two most important things to look for are tip style and wattage. We recommend a 60-watt chisel-tip soldering iron. The pointy tip irons are designed for tiny electronics like circuit boards and are of little use for jewelry, other than sealing jump rings. Lower than 60 watts might not heat up enough. Simply Swank’s soldering iron meets both requirements – plus it is pink!
The iron on the left has a pointy tip (not recommended). The iron on the right has the recommended chisel tip, but needs to be cleaned! Soldering is difficult when the tip is black and crusty - if the wet sponge doesn't help while you are working, let the iron cool and then file off the gunk.
Next, the solder itself. It is important to use lead-free solid-core solder. Avoid solders that have rosin or acid cores. Rings & Things sells Simply Swank’s lead-free solder and Staybrite silver solder. Both work great with soldering irons; Staybrite is more expensive because of its higher silver content.
Third, flux. All solder requires flux in order to melt and flow. Flux is included with the Staybrite solder. Simply Swank’s flux is sold separately and packaged in a super convenient nail-polish bottle.
I highly recommend that you watch Simply Swank’s videos on how to properly use your soldering iron. There are two short videos on their website you can view for free that explain how to care for your iron – important stuff! Their full video tutorial for making jewelry is available on DVD. Illustrated instructions are included in the Simply Swank soldering kit. Here is my condensed version of the process:
Copper tape creates the metal base needed for the solder to flow onto.
Sandwich images between 2 pieces of glass and wrap edges with copper foil tape. Burnish smooth. Clean with alcohol to remove any oils from your fingers – a clean surface is the best soldering surface!
Shaping the solder coil into a snake makes it easier to feed onto your soldering iron.
Apply flux to the copper tape. Touch your hot soldering iron to the solder to pick up a blob, and run the iron over the copper tape. Repeat. Repeat. Completely cover the copper tape with solder. If it looks lumpy, run the iron across the bumps to remelt the solder and smooth it out. Be sure to clean your soldering iron’s tip frequently. If the solder isn’t flowing, either the tip is dirty, your piece is dirty, you need more flux or you aren’t heating the piece sufficiently. Clips, clothespins or a third hand are all helpful tools for holding your piece while protecting your fingers.
Here Rita is holding her piece steady with bent chain nose pliers.
Add a blob of solder to the point where you’d like to attach your jump ring. Use pliers to hold the jump ring on the blob, and reheat with the iron to secure it in place. File any rough edges, buff with a polishing cloth, and you’re done!
Making soldered pendants is totally addictive. Microscope slide glass is an affordable way to indulge your pendant-making habit. When I saw this ad for Sharktopus (an actual movie!) I had to preserve it within a frame.
This quote belonged to the "Chocolate Pixie" (part of the Simply Swank Queens and Divas collage art set).
My solder isn’t completely smooth, but it isn’t too bad for a first attempt. Now that I know how to care for the soldering iron (thanks Simply Swank) I’m sure my next will be better! And don’t worry – there are no evil sea monsters lurking in Lake Soldering Iron. Come play! ~ Cindy
PDF Tags: collage pendants, how to make frame pendants, how-to, Simply Swank, solder, soldered glass pendants, soldering iron tips, tutorial
Thank you ever so much for these tips! This is a bit of a steep learning curve… or so it seems. I have the Hakko Soldering Station FX-888, which I love. But with the wide assortment of solders out there, and not knowing the temp to use, it’s a bit difficult.
I’ve now ordered some Simply Swank solder & flux from your site, and hope that will take out a few of the unknowns for me. I’ve watched the videos on their site & they were very helpful, so thanks for pointing me that direction.
Right now, I’m using solder called “Studio Pro Lead Free (675D).” I picked it up at Hobby Lobby. Do you happen to know if the 675 is the melting point? I had trouble tinning the tip with it, so tinned the tip with some small sized lead free (acid core) solder from Lowe’s.
See what I mean? This is very challenging!
But I’m not giving up!
Hi Lela! I don’t know about the Studio Pro solder. 675 degrees seems like too high of a melting temp for soft soldering, so perhaps that is the problem. 675 would flow with a torch, but probably not a soldering iron. I’m glad you are getting the Simply Swank solder – we’ve all really enjoyed using it here. My teacher told me to NOT use acid-core solders, but I don’t know the reason why. Good luck! Would love to see what you create when you get your Swank supplies
Thanks for the reply, Cindy. From reading a little on the Weller site, I think the acid core solder might be bad for the tips. Not sure. However, I couldn’t get the Studio Pro to tin the tip.
The thing is…after I get the tip tinned, the Studio Pro will flow….weird!!
I’ll try reducing the temp and see what happens. Can’t wait to get the Simply Swank solder!
Please don’t ever file the gunk off of your soldering iron !!!!! You WILL RUIN it !!!. wipe it on a wet spongue or a metal scrubie. If you have a reastate most 60/40 solder will melt at a 8 to 8 1/2 setting . let your iron warm up for a good 10 min .or more . I always plug my iron into a power strip along with a radio plugged into the same strip , leave the radio turned on. When you turn off the strip you know everything is off.
Good tips! Thanks for sharing
I think the Simply Swank tip about filing was meant to be very gentle – as in file off the big globs and then use a scrubby or sponge when you get in contact with the iron itself, but you’re right, it pays to be careful!
Do you know if the simply swank soldering iron would work on gold vermeil or gold-filled jumprings? All I have to do is close jump rings and I am so confused as to the best way…
Thx so much! Love your blog!
Hi Eliza – no, I would not recommend using a soldering iron or soft solder with gold-filled components. Precious metals should be torch soldered. Silver solder would work, but it would look silver, not gold. I wish I could be more helpful, but we don’t carry the right solder for gold and I have not used it personally. I found this video though, maybe it will be helpful. http://bit.ly/y6t6UQ Best of luck!
Thank you for sharing these tips.
I would recommend a temperature controlled soldering iron for very fine and accurate soldering projects such as jewelry making. Electronic temperature control means you’ll always know if the tip of the soldering iron is hot enough for the material you are soldering. It makes your soldering task a whole lot easier.
Love your blog!
I would like to solder sliver charms onto silver bracelet. Can anyone tell me if this is feasible for a novice and what I would need exactly?
Hi Tia! Yes, that is totally feasible! These are the tools and supplies I’d recommend to get started:
Butane torch kit: https://shop.rings-things.com/cart/pc/Rings-Things-Micro-Torch-Kit-1995p30500.htm
A good book: https://shop.rings-things.com/cart/pc/Book-Soldering-Made-Simple-Easy-Techniques-for-the-Kitchen-Table-Jeweler-499p27181.htm
Plus your sterling wire, chain, charms etc.; silver solder (https://shop.rings-things.com/cart/pc/showsearchresults.asp?pageStyle=M&resultCnt=10&keyword=hard+grade+solder) and flux (https://shop.rings-things.com/cart/pc/Flux-Liquid-4-oz-Self-Pickling-2113p17460.htm).
I’m enjoying all the tips and am still learning as I fine tune this art. My problem is the soldering tips……..they keep disintegrate on me… I’ve gone through 3 models, 25w and 40w, and about 6 tips. I have a variety of lead free solder that all melt fine and continually clean and use sal ammoniac to tin the tip. Is it the flux? My fluxes don’t specify, but the Weller manual says not use acid fluxes, but use rosin flux (?) HELP!
Hi Susan! Apparently not all tips are created equal – Mollie, who has years of soldering experience (both jewelry and stained glass) tells me iron-clad tips are durable and will last a lifetime, but that other tips easily get corroded and damaged. Some Weller tips are iron-clad, others aren’t. The sal ammoniac is corrosive, so without that factory-applied iron-clad tip, it can cause damage. I hope this info helps – it is no fun to struggle with tools when you have art to make!
Well that’s a wealth of information to me…….I’m positive then that the tips were NOT iron-clad. Thank you for that info. My next question is, does the Simply Swank Soldering Iron come with an iron-clad tip? Thank you!
It was news to me too, so thanks for asking the question! And yes, the Simply Swank soldering iron does have an iron-clad tip. http://bit.ly/KtH4Sw I also really like the Simply Swank flux, mostly because the cute little fingernail polish bottle it comes in is really convenient to use.
SOLD! Thank you so much.