[Jewelry making - Article 00536] - Re: [Orchid] Laser welder used

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>      So, several questions come to mind.  Does laser-welding of
>     silver, gold, and platinum demand the use of flux (which may be
>     what is giving my lungs fits) 

    No.  You don't use flux.  For some metals, you'll get better welds
    if you use an inert gas shield, usually Argon. 

>         and are they constructed in such a way as to conduct any
>     resulting fumes away from the operator? 

    Yes.  They have vent fans that draw welding fumes out the back
    through a fine filter which traps the metallic fumes. 

    The main danger is to your wallet, and occasionally annoying small
    burns to the fingers when you miss.  They sting, but do no real
    damage. 

    Note that welding platinum is the easiest, and 18K yellow gold is
    also easy, with lower karats of gold, or white golds, being
    increasingly trickier, and more benefited by the use of Argon
    shielding.  Silver looks better with argon, but it it's necessary
    usually.  However, silver is so reflective, and such a good heat
    conductor, that it takes considerably more energy to laser weld than
    most other metals (very high karat yellow gold, like 22K or 24K, is
    also difficult), so if you're doing lots of silver, in heavier gauges
    of metal, you may need more than the lowest power lasers to get
    decent results in a decent amount of time. But for mostly wire
    construction, even the basic units should be fine. 

    Alpha Supply in Bremerton WA is a tools dealer who also sells, among
    other things, new laser welders (I think mostly the current latest
    model CPP machines) to jewelry factories in India.  They take back,
    in trade, the old units, which are usually Siro Alphalasers, either
    the ALS-35 or ALS-35S, or similar units. Depending on the degree of
    refurbishment needed to get them running, and which model (the
    ALS-35S is higher power) and it's age, etc, they've been selling
    them here in the U.S. for prices between 13K and 17K or so.   The
    Siro lasers are the same ones that B&D sales sell (and also the one
    pictured in the Rio Grande tools catalog.  I don't know how much the
    currently new versions differ from these older lasers, but it's my
    impression that the design isn't being modified a whole lot.  they're
    fairly simple in terms of a lack of lots of bells and whistles, but
    seem reasonably sturdy lasers.   Like used cars, don't expect them to
    run like new, and some may need replacement parts sooner rather than
    later. these things are NOT like a rolling mill, which if cared for
    will last almost forever.  They're high powered electronics.  Power
    supplies can fail,  optics can need replacement,  computer control
    boards can go bad, and all that jazz. and if you use it a lot, then
    expect to replace the flash lamp (400-600) yearly or near to it.  But
    with that said, these lasers are a generally well accepted design,
    have been working for a number of years, and likely can be expected
    to work well for more of them too. 

Peter



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