[Jewelry making - Article 00515] - Re: [Orchid] Making your own Charcoal blocks

[Randy Smith]

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Hi Monica,

>     Also, where is the least expensive/highest quality place to obtain
>     firebricks and a soldering pad, and what is the most durable and
>     fire-resistant (also, easily obtainable and inexpensive) surface to
>     use for a bench? I'll probably be putting said surface on top of a
>     table or desk. 

    There are 3 types of FireBricks. There are the Charcoal FireBricks,
    there are the really light firebricks you can get at the jewelry
    supply houses, and there are the Brick FireBricks used to line
    fireplaces.

    I have been buying expensive charcoal blocks and soldering pads for
    years, until last year.

    Last year, I went to study with Orville Tsinnie, an Indian
    Silversmith in New Mexico. He was using an unusual block to solder
    on. Turns out it was a firebrick. Not the 'light' ones you can buy
    from the different jewelry houses, but the ones that are used to line
    a fireplace. A brick firebrick. Turns out, they cost 79 cents apiece,
    are about 12 inches by 6 inches by about 2 inches thick. You can buy
    them at the local brick yard, where I also found cotton gloves for
    $1.00 a pair, great to protect your fingers while polishing and
    buffing.

    At less than a dollar apiece, I bought several...(5)....... I can do
    anything with them that I do with a charcoal firebrick. I can drill
    holes for pins to hold jobs. I use the Foredom tool with a cutting
    disk to cut valleys and grooves to pour silver for ingots. I solder
    on them, and being three times bigger than most charcoal blocks, I
    can set up several soldering jobs at one. 

    They are relatively easy to cut with a diamond tool. I cut out shapes
    to fit a project, if I am going to make more than one of an item. I
    then have that setup permanently. When I do the same with a charcoal
    block, after using the setup a few times, it has 'burned' out, and I
    have to create a new one on a new expensive charcoal fire brick.

    If the top get dirty or chipped, I just use a file, take off a
    layer, and its like new. They don't split like charcoal blocks, and
    they will 'hold' the heat like a charcoal block does. They just don't
    deteriorate like charcoal does. I think you could probably cover a
    table top with firebrick and then solder anywhere on the table. I
    have soldered on the fire brick for quite a long time, using very
    high heat, then checked the reverse side, and it is barely warm if
    at all.

    The one thing I haven't done with the brick firebrick is alloy gold.
    I use a charcoal firebrick, cut a hole it the top, and put in my 24
    ct gold, my copper and my silver to make my different alloys of gold.
    I think I need the charcoal effect to prevent oxidation, but I have
    not tried this one process on the brick firebrick.

Love and God Bless
randy
http://www.rocksmyth.com
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