[Jewelry making - Article 01118] - [Orchid] Soldering tube settings together

[Helen Hill]

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Hi folks,

    I made a pendant the other day for a friend of mine. It is made by
    soldering together seven tube settings. I make my own tube settings
    and bearers. My problem is that whilst some of the joints work
    smoothly and to plan, some of them just won't solder to my
    satisfaction and don't quite flow properly to make a strong joint.
    They just sort of go to the mush stage and thus can be easily pulled
    apart, requiring me to clean up and resolder until I get it right. 

    Is there are tried and trusted technique to this? I have tried doing
    it using a solder pick (which is how I do most soldering) but
    haven't had much success as the settings move out of position (they
    were arranged in a sort of sinusoidal manner) and also if they are
    round settings I can't get the tip of the solder pick with the solder
    on it, into the tight space. I have also tried setting the two pieces
    up after fluxing, in such a way that there is a piece of solder
    wedged between them and then when I see the solder start to flow, I
    can push the settings closer together. Sometimes this works but
    sometimes as I say it just "mushes" creating a bad joint. The reason
    I have wedged the solder in between the settings, is to avoid the two
    surfaces oxidising whilst being heated. 

    I know that I will probably get quite a few answers telling me to
    make sure the joint is perfectly clean and tight, etc, BUT I can
    assure you that everything is perfectly cleaned up to the point of
    being bright white. If a joint has failed and needs doing again, I
    file and pickle to remove any traces of solder and oxidation.
    Incidentally, I use hard solder for almost every joint, only using
    medium to do things like soldering a bale onto a pendant. Don't know
    if this makes any difference. 

    Does anybody who does a lot of tube setting work have a tried and
    trusted method for soldering them together? Thanks in advance. 

Helen Hill
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