Soldering Sterling Jumprings

[Metalman]

Your first decision has to do with the quality of the product you are making.  Stabrite, while a great product, is considered a ‘soft’ solder.  I believe it is mostly made up of tin.  If you use a soft solder on fine metals [gold and silver], the material gets in to surface of the metal.  If that metal is ever heated up to ‘hard’ soldering temperatures, the ‘soft’ solder will leach into the fine metal surfafce causing large corroded areas. So, the decision is about making a costume jewelry quality or a fine jewelry quality product.

If you are going to do ‘hard’ soldering you will need a torch.  Even one of the small butane fueled torches will be hot enough to do small scale soldering.  There are a number of solder grades which are dependent on the temperatures that they melt at, generally between 1200 F and 1450 F.  You can use a variety of fluxes, most of them are variations on borax based fluxes.  I would recommend The Complete Metalsmith by Tim McCreight, Rings and Things Cat #62-010 if you are going into hard soldering.  This is a great reference for jewelry making and metalsmithing.  There is is a great section on soldering, soldering processes, fluxes, methods and pickle cleaning.  Hard Soldering will be your most effective and durable method for working with fine metals, sterling silver and coin silver, as well as various copper, brass and bronze alloys.  This is not particularily time intensive and should be efficient for you but it is skill intensive. Quality hard soldering takes a bit to learn to do well.
With regard to bezel making, again the quality question arises.  In general, I would think that making a good bezel would require hard soldering as well.

A solution may be to get started with the Art Clay materials.  If you were to build a pendant base, sized to your coin [allowing for the 8 to 10% shrinkage] and fit bezel wire into it, you would be all set.  To do this you would need: some Art Clay [or Art Clay 650], fine silver bezel wire, and Art Clay Oil Paste.  You would fit your bezel wire to the coin, cut it and then use the Oil Paste to ‘fix’ the bezel.  Then you fire the bezel so you can reshape it and fit it into your unfired ACS pendant base. Then fire it all out and finish it so you can mount your coin.  These instructions basically follow Project 4 in Art Clay Silver, Book 2  R&T cat # 62-329

Just a note:  I don’t think that the Oil Paste, by itself, would be strong enough to hold separate parts together like you have indicated you would like.  You couyld test it out. This is one of those grey zones where these new materials have not been tried yet.  I call it the Experimentiverse.
Let me know how it goes!

[Metalman]

Concerning making bezels with the art clay:

You will need to balance the thickness of the coin with the width of your bezel wire.  Wrapping up over the edge would be how I would go about it.  I have seen bezel wire with scallops or serrated - this would eliminate the wrinkle/buckle problem. If you can't find the bezel wire the way you want it, you could modify the edge of the wire yourself.
I wouldn't want to fire the coin myself, and the reason for using the bezel wire is so that you can mount the coin after firing.  If you make up the bezel and fire it, then fit it into the clay the bezel itself won't shrink.  You may need to do some repairs and a second firing before you mount the coin.
My concern with firing the coins has to do with firescale on the silver and possible changes in the alloy of the coin if it is not a fine silver of gold coin.
Keep those questions coming in

[Metalman]

I am not familiar with the 'Hot Spot'. Paste flux can refer to a 'hard solder' process as well as a 'soft solder' process. All of my former comments [above] regarding these processes apply. Ultimately the decision factor  has to do with the grade level of your product quality.  Hard soldering is the most durable, and finest grade of soldering usage.
If the 'Hot Spot' does do hard soldering, you will probably need to pickle the metal after soldering.  The manufacturer of selling agent should be able to provide any and all technical information, including the MSDS  sheets.  If they cannot or will not or are less then helpful and forthcoming - find a new supplier.

Okay, every thing above still applies - I looked up the 'Hot Spot' in a tool catalog - it looks as though it does do hard soldering but the clean up aspect is vague.  Check with your supplier

[Elizabeth]

Hi,

I would like to solder jumprings onto coins.  Most of the coins I would use would be fine silver others, will just be an alloy maybe with a small silver content.
I have priced ready made bezels for coins and I know I can do this much less expensive, I just don't know what I need to get started.

I have read other post and know that I need a soldering iron, but am confused as to what solder I would use.  Whether it would be stabrite or a silver solder?  I know that stabrite comes with flux, what flux would I purchase if I were to use silver solder.
And which solder will I be able to use with the different materials that I will be using.

Now, if this is time intensive and will take the same amount of time as making a bezel, how would I go about doing that?  

Or, maybe I can purchase ACS oil (?) and join the part together and then fire it. (?)   If this way would work it seems that it would be the easiest and quickest.

Sorry that this post is so long and full of questions.  Thanks in advance for your time.

Elizabeth

[Elizabeth]

Thanks for all the information!

More questions concerning making bezels with the art clay:

Form a piece of art clay sized to the coin plus 8-10%.  Mearsure and cut a fine silver bezel for diameter of coin.  
Here's the question: I have never worked with bezel wire but I was under the assumption that it would not work with anything that did not have a 45-95 degree angle.  A coin does not have an angle.  It goes straight up and across the surface.  How would the bezel actually hold the coin in?  If I were to fold the bezel over the face of the coin, the bezel would pucker and wrinkle.  Right?

Once I get everything worked out and decide to use art clay, would I be able to fire the bezel with the coin already in it?  That way I would not have to worry about the slight shrinkage and it would just tighten up and form around the coin.

I would like to do quality jewelry and not costume.

Elizabeth

[Luann Udell]

If I want to solder sterling silver jump rings, but don't have the resources to also deal with butane torches, fluxes and pickling, would a Hot Spot be a good alternative?  I'm told it uses a solder paste and a quick burst of electricity to solder.  Does it also mean the prep and clean-up is easier?  I know it costs a heckuva lot more....
thanks,
Luann