[Jewelry making - Article 00096] - Re: [Orchid] Vulcanizing pewter models

[Daniel Grandi]

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>     Dear wonderful jewelers with bountiful stock wisdom, Can a piece
>     made out of pewter or tin  withstand the heat and pressure of a
>     vulcanized molding process? ? 

    The answer to this has many interesting quirks as you will see by my
    answer. Yes, a mold can be made from a pewter " model". 

    If the model is contructed of pewter ( which should be Pure tin) you
    will not have a problem. You can have a problem with some of the
    solders available that are used to solder a tin model together. You
    must make sure that the solder selected will match up with the
    molding temperature of the rubber you are using. 

    There are many items that you may buy in a store that may be stamped
    "pewter" but that does not mean that it is pure tin. There is a large
    variety of metals that are tin based  called "white metal". 

    An example would be" 88" metal which is only 88% tin .. this will
    melt in a vulcanizer at between 300 to 350F ... if the metal is "92"
    or "95"  metal , it will not melt at vulcanizing temperatures . 

    The worst situation is that you have an item that was given to you
    or that you bought and you assume that it is of a high tin/pewter
    concentration.. you proceed to make a standard mold and the model
    melts down as it may be made of a tin /lead alloy that melts at low
    temp. 

    My suggestion is that if you are not positive of the metal
    composition, then Err on the safe side and make an RTV type of mold
    or a low temperature mold. 

    If you are making the model yourself, A large selection of tin
    /pewter sheet ,wire and solder is available from Contenti supply
    company 800-343-3364 Steve, who is a salesperson at contenti is a
    good person to ask what solders would work best for your potential
    applications. 

    Hope this is helpful. 

    Daniel Grandi   

    Racecar Jewelry Co. Inc    
    tel: 401-461-7804    
    We do casting and finishing in a wide assortment of metals for people
    in the trade 

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