[Jewelry making - Article 01286] - Re: [Orchid] Squirt bottles and Pripps

[Ash]

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Andy,

    I frequently ran into this same problem after I started using
    Pripp's Flux. I have always made my own so I don't know if store
    bought would be any different. I experimented with several types of
    bottles and ran into clogging on all of them. The worst were the
    small push top sprayers. I have had much better luck with the trigger
    style that most cleaning products come in. These are garbage. 

    The push tops sprayers were for a really fine mist and just what I
    had on hand at first. The top (button) was really flimsy and would
    unseat at the drop of a hat. However, even with these bad sprayers I
    was able to get a pin and poke it in the outlet and spray again until
    the push button came loose. The miniscule nozzle gets clogged and as
    you said it's mission becomes only to mock even if it gets soaked in
    hot water. I tried soaking and boiling too and  there was no joy to
    behold until I plucked the offending particle out of the nozzle. 

    The trigger kind with the "adjustable" nozzle (like what you
    describe) have clogged on me too (not nearly as often as I try to
    close those off when I am not using) but I have been able to unclog
    them with a sewing needle or other similarly scaled pointy object.
    One word of warning make sure to point the nozzle away from you and
    anything valuable. A sink works good, because there can be a little
    or more than a little pressure released when it unclogs. Quite a bit
    of pressure too if the trigger gets squeezed a lot in frustration....
    Not dangerous in a piercing way, but I got a wall 10 feet away the
    first time I got VERY frustrated. 

    Oh one other thing, that may or may not matter. I brew about a
    gallon at a time and store in several canning jars and pour it into
    my sprayer as needed. A thin blue silt eventually settles over the
    bottom. A couple of shakes and it mixes back up ok, but if this
    settles and forms in the bottom of the spray bottle and the feeding
    tubes circles around the bottom of the container then it is drawing
    straight from all this silt. So I took a scalpel and cut it short so
    it about 20mm (just an arbitrary distance) or so from bottom. Now I
    have not really investigated to see if this very thin sediment
    represents a minor flaw in my Pripp's Prep, but other that the very
    occasional clog, the Pripp's works as advertised to prevent
    firescale. This did seem to alleviate my clogging somewhat, spray
    bottle clogging I mean, but I can't say it was the magic bullet. It
    may just mean I am not cooking my flux long enough. 

    Don't know if any of this will help or already has been tried. I
    just had the same exact problems and thought I would toss out my vast
    <ha-ha> scientific inquiry to the matter. ;-) 

Ashley Webb

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