[Jewelry making - Article 00209] - Re: [Orchid] Soldering dissimilar golds

[Les Brown]

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    Andy, If you cannot acquire a 9k hard white solder, try using the
    medium white for he next karat up, or as high a karat as you can find
    which still falls below the melting temp of your 9k material. 

    I assume you want the harder material in order to avoid the solder
    seam eroding out when you finish the piece.  Otherwise,  I don't
    think a married metal situation as you describe has to have such a
    strong join.  

    As for actually making the join,  I have a suggestion which,
    depending on the width of your mating surfaces, may help.  In the
    Bench Tricks column in the May 02 issue of JCK, an approach used in
    sweat soldering by Wayne Lenkeit, of Lenkeit Manufacturing in
    California,  was described.  

    His technique, which he uses to obtain clean solder seams in overlay
    work is this: 

    	Bur a series of small depressions on the back of the smaller piece;
    fill these depressions by flowing solder 	into them;  sand the
    filled depressions level with the metal's surface; prep for
    soldering; place piece as 	desired and heat until the solder flows to
    the edges of the seam.  

    I have found this works great for any number of jobs, not just
    overlay. Instead of taking forever to bur a series of varied depth
    depressions, however, I use a centering drill of the appropriate
    diameter to drill a number of holes to a more precise depth (and a
    whole quicker than trying to ball bur them), fill with solder as
    above, sand as above, prep, place and heat.  

    With a little practice you can get perfect solder seams with
    absolutely no cleanup, and you can  use fixturing techniques to hold
    things in place because the pieces don't move in relation to each
    other at all when flow temp is reached. 

    If you've got enough room on mating surfaces to place the holes you
    might give this a try. 

Les Brown
L.F.Brown Goldwork, Inc.
Kalispell, MT 59901

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