[Jewelry making - Article 00323] - Re: [Orchid] Chill gel

[Douglas Turet]

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Hi Polly,

    Since the majority of my training and experience is with stones,
    I'll tackle your second question first: whether you can or cannot
    resolder your pin finding back onto the Mexican Opal piece depends
    upon several (crucial) details that you haven't told us. First, how
    heavy is the silver you intend to solder it onto? Is it either
    fabricated or cast from fairly substantial stock, or is it something
    lighter, like 26 or 30 gauge? Second, where are the stone and the
    solder joint to be located -- i.e. how far apart are they? Are they
    in close proximity, or even right next to one another? If so, no
    amount of gel, goo, gunk or glop, no matter how fortified, will save
    the stone from utter demolition. Mexican Opals are amongst the least
    stable of the already-delicate Opal clan, because the majority of
    them possess so much water vapor in their makeup. If heated to
    anywhere near the boiling point of water (which is, of course, far
    below the flow temperature of solder), this vapor expands,
    shattering the stone. Add to this silver's excellent thermal
    conductivity and heat-sinking abilities (i.e. the need to heat most
    or all of the workpiece in order to get a good flow) and chances are
    pretty good that you'll need to remove your stone before repairs can
    commence. 

    The only possible way out of this that I can imagine would be if
    your Opal were prong set and sitting on a long promontory, far away
    from the pin catch: an area far enough away and small enough in
    diameter that it would neither require direct heating nor be able to
    draw enough heat away as to damage the stone. For example, if the
    pin's shape was that of a human hand, the damaged catch were located
    at the wrist, and the Opal were prong-set at the middle finger tip,
    you could probably get away with not removing the stone. In the end
    it'll come down to answering one question: which'll cost you more,
    the time, labor and cost of removing and resetting the stone, or
    that of replacing it? 

    Next, about the solder joint that broke: what kind of soldering
    agent did you use? Was it a hard solder, or something of lower
    quality and/or flow temperature? And had you cleaned the two
    surfaces before soldering them together? If not, or if only
    partially, that could've weakened the bond, as well; while easy
    solders won't necessarily fill gaps any better than harder ones
    will, they do seem more willing to flow onto unevenly cleaned ones,
    especially when large amounts of solder are applied. Could that have
    played a part in your joint's failure? Last, but not least, (as
    you'd suggested), how far did you "ask" the metal to move (via your
    pliers), when assembling the pin stem? Like you'd said, it's always
    possible that you'd created a minor fissure during assembly, which
    gave way, later. When you discover the real reason, please drop a
    line and let me (or us) know what it turned out to be. 'Til then, 

All my best,
Douglas Turet
Turet Design
P.O. Box 162
Arlington, MA 02476
Tel. (617) 325-5328
eFax (928) 222-0815
anotherbrightidea AT hotmail.com


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