[Jewelry making - Article 01113] - Re: [Orchid] Soldering Enormous Bezels

[doug]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========


    I'm not 100% certain, but I think it's possible you may have
    misinterpreted your friend's advice, and I think it may still serve
    you well. Here's why I say this... two years ago, while I was at
    Revere, I was struggling with a large and relatively heavysheet of
    reticulating silver, without much success. After more than a dozen
    attempts at depletion gilding, I asked Alan for some advice, and
    he'd suggested using the torch to really heat up my charcoal block
    until it glowed white hot, then covering the glowing area with the
    silver, and *then* heating it from above. This worked perfectly for
    me and probably will do so for you, as well. 

    To simply heat from above,alone, in the manner you've described,
    would be alot like playing Sisyphus, trying to push theproverbial
    heat downhill!(Especially tricky with silver, which is capable of
    transferring heat from one area to another with alarming rapidity.)
    As I recall, I had to keep my Boley AA tweezers handy, to lift the
    sheet and reheat the block two or three times but, eventually, I got
    the result I was seeking. Another approach to this might be wrapping
    a coil of 19 or 20ga. iron binding wire around a dowel, then pulling
    it off and making the equivalent of a hotplate's heating coil, to be
    placed under your silver sheet atop the charcoal block, immediately
    after heating the block. While this'd enable some of the heat to
    escape, no doubt, it'd also make it a good deal easier to slip the
    flame back underneath to reheat it, when needed. Last, but not least,
    you could try using a finer version of the same coil (i.e. 30 gauge)
    and first crumpling it up, then tamping it down into a flattened
    "bird's nest", to be used the same way (which'd hold more heat in).
    Let us know what winds up working best for you, okay?


Douglas Turet, G.J.
http://www.turetdesign.com



____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________