[Jewelry making - Article 00474] - Re: [Orchid] Large pieces soldering difficulties

[David L. Huffman]

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>         Hi, I've been having trouble getting even easy 18kt gold
>     solder to flow on  large pieces such as pendants and rings. 


Hi Susan;

    I can't say with certainty what the problem is without seeing the
    particulars of the situation, but let me offer a few facts and tips.
     First, 18K is a much better conductor of heat than 14K, so like
    silver, volume of heat is a concern as you have to pour more heat
    into the piece itself to compensate for conduction and radiation of
    heat away from the solder joint. This will likely have you heating
    the piece longer, which means you are expending the ability of your
    flux to continue to do it's job.  Try cutting the solder into much
    smaller chips and placing more of them.  I might even advise using
    paste flux (Handy of Dandix) instead of self-pickling battern's
    types.  Use a bigger torch tip and bathe the article in a preheating
    strategy before coming in on the solder joint.  And 18K usually has
    proportionately more copper in the alloy which means you are likely
    to have it actually oxidize easier than 14K.  Sterling will be
    similar, except that the flow point of sterling solder is much lower
    than the melting point of the sterling compared to the difference
    between 18K solders and 18K alloys. Good luck, I'm sure others will
    offer more help on this. 

David L. Huffman


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