[Jewelry making - Article 01006] - [Orchid] Soldering Enormous Bezels

[Lee Einer]

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    Hi, all- I have recently received a custom order for a belt buckle
    which is actually just an enormous bezel cup- a 2" by 3" 
    rectangular cab, with the edges trimmed flush, no silver showing on
    the sides. 

    I am going nuts trying to solder this thing. 

    Thus far, here is what I have tried- 

    Soldering with a tripod- while this has served me well for soldering
    even fairly substantial pieces in the past, this buckle is nearly
    four times the size of my past work, and yes, the screen on the
    tripod acts as a heat sink, keeping the piece from getting up to
    temperature rapidly enough. Several of you on this list have carte
    blanche to say "Told ya so!" 

    Placing the piece on two pieces of tufa, with just the edges on the
    tufa, and heating from below. It caused the sheet (18g) to warp when
    heated. Since success of the  enterprise depends on a flat bezel
    laying on a flat backing sheet, this was a major bummer. The results
    of this experiment have been recycled into reticulation and casting
    scrap. 

    An alternate strategy, suggested by a fellow silversmith, is to heat
    the piece on a soldering pad (from the top) with the flame in the
    middle of the sheet until the thing gets up to temperature, then
    playing the flame around the outer edge of the bezel to flow the
    solder. Her theory was that the soldering pad retains enough heat to
    make this work. Viable? 

    I am open to other ideas. Any suggestions? 

Lee Einer
Dos Manos Jewelry
http://www.dosmanosjewelry.com


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