[Jewelry making - Article 00031] - Re: [Orchid] [Beginners' Corner] solder formulas

[Manmountain]

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>     Will I really be saving money alloying, melting and
>     rolling my own, or should I just have it done by the guys (or gals)
>     who know what they are doing.Thanks for all your help. Alma  

    I buy only 24K. This way I have no need to stock any other color or
    karat. When necessary, I can alloy down 18K to 14k. My total stock of
    raw gold in the shop including bench sweeps stays under 10 ounces
    except when I might need a particularly large amount of gold for a
    particular job. Alloying is easy and quick. The smallest amount that
    I will make is about 5 dwt. There is really no maximum. There is also
    no question about what goes into my alloys. I do not use solders with
    cadmium any more. I also stick to plumb solders. On remelting my
    scrap, I can be sure that there will be no lessening of karat value.
    As for whether solder causes pitting, huhhh?? WHy when the molten
    metal is completely mixed would the solder gather together to form
    pits? Other flaws in the metal I have come to understand. This one
    escapes me, however. I worked in a trade shop in my first six years
    on the bench. There, we did no alloying. All alloying was done by
    Hoover & Strong. When well stocked I think that we were sitting on 10
    ounces of 5x1.5mm square sizing stock in both white and yellow, 5
    ounces of 2x1.5mm half round sizing stock in both white and yellow, a
    couple to fifty ounces of 8 ga. sheet in white and yellow, a little
    18K yellow bulk, a little pink and I can't remember what else. Gold
    was a lot cheaper back then, but i suspect that they still could have
    used that money packing their inventory a little better.   I thought
    that I might save some labor by buying prefab sheet recently from
    large unnamed supplier recently when I needed the metal overnight. I
    was a little more than shocked by the price. It was something like
    25-30% higher than market. Quite a premium for the convenience in my
    book. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bruce Holmgrain
JA Certified Master Bench Jeweler
http:\\www.goldwerx.com 

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