[Jewelry making - Article 00813] - Re: [Orchid] Hard Soldering Nickel Silver

[Travis Duggan]

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    Donna, Since I've left Maui Divers, I'm still making models for my
    own line. I've been using for fabrication, old silverware
    (especially spoons!) that I roll out into plate.  The advantage is,
    the silver plating acts like "rolled gold" and leaves a thin plating
    of silver on both sides even after the metal is rolled.  This allows
    the solder (gold or hard silver solder) to bond really easy with
    some working properties of silver.  Overheating can cause bubbling
    on the surface and lead to porosity so care is used not to overheat
    if the solder isn't flowing. It's usually best to stop, pickle,
    clean and re-flux (not to be confused with "acid re-flux" LOL) After
    assembly, during the lapping and polishing stages, the silver is
    buffed off leaving the nickel silver beneath to yield a high polish
    and the working characteristics of plain NS.  Yea it's a little more
    trouble that just NS (nickel silver) but I can remember the crap I
    went through, like yourself, fighting good flow characteristics in
    the solder.  I don't think it's contributed to heat control as
    someone else mentioned, but more of an oxide problem with surface
    contamination.  That goes for Rio's solder as well.  I've used
    different solders all through my career and have determined it's a
    myriad of combined elements that cause behavioral problems,
    including type of gas, heat, flux, borax coating, and solder alloys
    and mostly just what you get used to.  I stick to Stuller's myself. 
    It's always been there the next day! 

Travis Duggan
Placitas, NM


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