QUESTION ABOUT SOLDERING

[marina]

Thanks a lot!! That's very helpful!

Also, I'm not very familiar with soldering,(so I don't know if this sounds stupid) but what colour solders are available, because i think i will be using bronze-gold rustic colour metals. Are these available at all? If not, what colour do you recommend?

Also, what do you mean by "tin" it?

Marina

[marina]

Again..thank you. That was extremely helpful.

I have also read through the other threads, and they too, are very helpful.

I wasnt going to originally solder my jewellery, but I have come to realise that because my jewellery will be extremely heavy and constantly being moved around (as it is a 'detachable' jewellery product - one made up of individual jewellery pieces such as rings and bracelts which can be removed and worn to suit different needs) I feel that soldering will increase my marks and strengthen my product. (especially because it is Design&technology..where durability and stregnth etc etc are all very important)

Thank you soooo much for you responses!!!

I will contact you soon if i need more help

Thankyou!
Marina  

[marina]

Ok this is for my Major Project for year 12 and i really need some help.

I am designing and producing beaded jewellery (by collecting a wide range of materials and putting them all together), and I need a bit of help to do with soldering.

Firstly, when it comes to soldering, am I required to use a special jewellers soldering iron when simply joining, for example, two brass stampings to one another, or when closing up the loop of a jumpring? Because I am joining non-precious metal together, would a simple soldering iron (one my dad has that just melts the solder to join 2 items together) be suitable for carrying out this type of work (just joining and closing holes up)??

If so, what type of solder would be best to use?

Hope to hear from some1 soon!!!!

[Russ Nobbs]

Hi Marina!

I think the best solder is either of the silver bearing soft solders intended for jewelry - Sta-Brite or Tix. We carry the Sta-Brite brand. they come complete with the required flux. You can find one or the other solders at many craft stores, rock shops and some hardware stores.

You don't want to use rosin core solder intended for electronics work. Solder and paste flux used for copper pipe will work but Sta-Brite is better stuited to jewelry. If you use the paste flux be sure to wash the piece well to remove any flux residue.

Your dad's soldering irons probably will work. If it has a big tip they may be a little awkward to use for soldering a small jumpring. You may need to clean his iron up to remove any rosin flux from electronics soldering or acid flux from stainglass or copper pipe work. The tip should be clean so you can "tin" it with new solder. It should be at least a 60 watt iron. A heavier iron may work better for soldering large findings together.

The next thread in this section has a lot of details on how to use soft solder with jewelry: http://www.rings-things.com/cgi-bin....5

I'd suggest you read that thread and then ask any more questions you have.

[Russ Nobbs]

I'll answer your questions in reverse order, the easy one first.

B) "Tinning" is coating the tip of your iron with fresh solder. If the tip is black and/or corroded you may need to file the black off to get clean metal before  tinning. The reason you want your tip tinned is so it transfers heat faster. The black corosion "insulates" the tip from your work and the work never gets hot enough to melt the solder. In the other threads in this section, tinning is discussed in more detail.

A) All the soft solders are based on tin and/or lead because they are have a low melting temperature. They are white or silver colored. I don't know of any yellow color low melting temperature solder.  Jewelers get around this by various methods.

1) Costume jewelry is plated after soldering. Tiaras are a good example. Rhinestone chain and other parts are assembled, solder is flowed to hold everything in place the the whole piece is plated a uniform color. Most crafters don't have this option unless they send the goods out to a plating shop.

2) Tube rivets are used to assemble a stone setting, metal filigree and a pin back together.  Look at costume jewelry pins from the 50's and 60's. There is one rivet used to hold all the part together. The end of the rivet is flared over (swadged) with a swadgng press or hand held tool.

3) Art jewelers use similar methods to pin metal, bone, found objects, etc together. Metal pins, "nail" headed pins or rivets are used to hold the parts together. Sometimes several pins are used in the same piece. You can see this in Metalsmith magazine, College art department exhibits and "art jewelers" work at museums and juried craft shows.

4) There are some yellow "brazing" wire solders that are used with a torch to produce a yellowish color join. The torch gets the metals so hot any platied finishes will be burned off or discolored. These are much higher temperature products. If you are doing gold jewelry you might as well use low karat gold solder.

5) Fine jewelers working in karat gold use karat gold solders with a high temperature oxy/propane or oxy/acetylene torch.

6) Fine jewelry work in modern shops is now done with a laser, often by welding fine gold to fine gold without solders.

Back to soft soldering with tin based solders- -
Try it with some pieces where the white solder won't show from the front. Try it with some junk pieces that you won't mind experimenting on. Get a feel for how the solder flows to the hot parts. You don't melt the solder onto the work, you get the work hot enough to melt the solder when you touch the solder to the hot work.

Re-read the other threads in this section. Until you actually see (and feel) how it works it's very hard to explain with words. Let me know what other questions you have.

ps.... as I reread this whole thread I'm reminded that this is a major project for school. You might get a lot of extra credit for using method #3 above. Forget about soldering and learn to mechanically assemble your work using pins and rivets. Find some copies of Metalsmith magazine and look at some of the outstanding assembled work shown there. Ask your local art school or museum about local artists who use this "upscale" method and try to get invited to their studio. Most would be honored you are asking to learn from them.

[Metalman]

Marina,
The soft solders that Russ refers to are much the same as the solders used for stained glass work.  You may find that Copper Patina for stained glass ilcolor your solder joints enough to 'settle' the joints in visually.  It may or may not work well with Sta-Brite due to the silver content but is worth the experiment. In high wear areas, this patina will not last a real long time.
There are also some light weight plating tools you can find in the craft industry which could help.