[Jewelry making - Article 00023] - Re: [Orchid] Marble stone as a Soldering Block?

[Ruthie Cohen]

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Dear Angela,

    I am not sure if marble can hold up to concentrated heat being aimed
    at one spot. In my 25 years of soldering, I have discovered a
    relatively inexpensive and safe base for soldering on. I use kiln
    shelves for pottery kilns. Go to your local ceramic supply house or
    pottery supply house and ask them for half round shelves for kilns. 

    1. They are manufactured to withstand over 2000 degrees of heat.
    Hard enough for YEARS of use- not like charcoal, firebrick or the
    dreaded stove heat shields of old that contained asbestos. 

    2. Being flat, they will act as a heat sink to flatten a piece if it
    gets overheated on a screen(common among newbies to soldering) Take
    the piece off the soldering screen, set it down on the kiln shelf,
    and watch the piece relax. Also a good place for annealing metal
    without worrying about overheating the table. 

    3. If you are really worried about heat transfer to your table, use
    2 halves stacked instead of one. 

    4. Using the half round shape gives you a WIDER area to work on. Do
    the soldering in the center and line up all your pretties to one
    side. Also gives you room to park your soldering tools, hang the
    torch, and leave room for flux and solder. 

Hope that helps.
Ruthie Cohen
Mountain Metalsmiths School
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