[Jewelry making - Article 00056] - [Orchid] Rio's medium sterling solder did not melt

[Jim Doherty]

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    I had an interesting problem last night trying to use Rio's med
    sterling solder. I made a loop in loop chain and fabricated some end
    caps out of 18ga sterling so I could try to flush set some 2mm stones
    around the barrel of the end cap. 

    I used Rio's hard sterling solder for everything except soldering
    the pin through the chain and end caps. I don't use med solder much
    so I used a piece that had been sitting around a while. I sanded the
    solder's surface shiny and placed 1 ball of solder on each joint
    after using cupronil and borax flux. I heated the cap and pin to med
    orange but the solder wouldn't melt so I put the flame directly on
    the solder, still nothing so I turned up the heat and got the end
    cap shimmering and actually melted the end of the pin off right up
    against the barrel and the med solder that wouldn't melt. 

    I finally ended up fusing the pin or pulled hard solder that got
    sucked out of the other joints. I had to file off the 2 balls of med
    solder they never melted. I'm gonna dump the rest of the solder but
    ANY idea what happened?? I only use hard and med solder both
    unmistakably marked, I know I had med solder. I would appreciate any
    conjecture. 

Jim C Doherty
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