[Jewelry making - Article 01051] - Re: [Orchid] Soldering Enormous Bezels

[Steven Holden]

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    Hi Lee, ...my dos centimos... I don't know whether this will be
    useful, but what I do for large bezels is: Put soldering pad onto a
    rotatable  solder pad holder...bend up 3 or 4 quarter inch width
    strips of thin silver sheet into semi or 3 quarter circles, like
    you're making a band ring but not completing the full circle...I use
    offcuts of pattern strip like they sell in Rio Grande,and position
    them in a triangle or quad configuration on the solder sheet.Then
    rest the piece to be soldered onto these "feet",and start heating
    from the side and below,rotating the soldering pad on the
    turntable,so the heat is spread evenly on the under surface of the
    piece....which has been fluxed and prepared for soldering of course
    :-)),when the sheet starts to glow a good color move the torch to the
    upper surface and play it over the whole, rotating the sheet as
    before...til the solder runs...keep a good eye on the joint and
    lightly press down any section that doesn't want to mate with solder
    pick or tweezers etc. 

    The thin vertical section of the "feet" won't act as a heatsink
    while the bent form of the feet will give strong support to the
    piece. Hopefully it's own weight and the supports will prevent the
    buckling ,but maybe that's a result of an over-fierce flame...if the
    piece buckles in the centre just add another support ring below so
    that the heat stresses are evened out more.Keep the piece rotating to
    make sure that no one area gets hot too quickly...and good luck...
    Steve Holden www.platayflores.com


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