[Jewelry making - Article 00063] - Re: [Orchid] Basic soldering/torch help needed

[Jon]

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    Hi Carrie, The use of boric acid/alcohol to coat the items prevents
    oxygen from interacting and causing oxide formation on the surface or
    below surface(firescale). Flux is then needed to allow the solder to
    flow in a controlled way. Mind you that boric acid/alcohol is not
    necessary and I rarely use it. Flux on the other hand is important
    and essential. Think of the boric acid/alcohol as a shielding and the
    flux as a guide for solder flow. IMHO a "rule of thumb" for using the
    boric acid/ alcohol coating is this: to coat diamonds in order to
    prevent them from combusting when doing repairs. The boric acid
    coating can damage other stones(corundum) as mentioned recently in
    another post. The problem for me is that the darn borax becomes a
    glasslike substance thats more of a pain to remove than simple
    surface oxides. If firescale becomes a problem then adopt the
    coating strategy or switch to alloys that reduced possible oxidation.
    I have luckily rarely had firescale issues when using a charcoal
    block(reducing atmosphere) but I still keep this method in my bag of
    tricks. 

Hope this helps,
Jon in Montreal


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