[Jewelry making - Article 00116] - Re: [Orchid] Brass metal ball up

[Len and Judy Bjorkman]

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>     ....the brass wouldn't ball up. All it seemed to do was turn into a
>     steaming mass of burnt metal. 

    Augest, are you applying flux to the brass before heating? It needs
    to be fluxed. The black flux for brazing is best, but the white flux
    for silver soldering also works. I regularly form little balls on the
    fluxed ends of 16-, 18-, 20-, and 22-gauge wires with my acetylene
    torch (even with a butane torch, for the smaller-diameter wires). 

    I don't agree that brass fumes "are highly toxic." If you overheat
    brass, the zinc will fume off, and that's not good for you, but I
    would guess that the fumes from the flux are more dangerous, so be
    sure to wear a mask for fumes or use a good exhaust system (or both).
    HTH! 

Judy Bjorkman
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