[Jewelry making - Article 00181] - Re: [Orchid] Rio's medium sterling solder did not melt

[Karen Christians]

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    Each supplier selling solder offers a wide and varied choices in
    temperatures. I have found that Rio's hard solder takes a tremendous
    amount of heat to flow and even when you apply heat, it does not flow
    consistently as well as other suppliers' hard solder. 

    Although Rio Grande's and Hauser and Miller's hard solder has the
    same flow temperature, Rio Grande's seems to just ball up and be
    almost mushy. It is not my first pick for hard solder, although their
    easy and medium are fine and have consistent color match. 

    Hauser and Miller's hard solder takes a tremendous amount of heat to
    flow. Their alloy has a yellow tinge which does not match sterling as
    exactly as I would like. However, in teaching students, it is a good
    all around solder to use. 

    I have found that Hoover and Strong's hard solder which has a higher
    flow temperature, when heated flows beautifully and has an excellent
    color match with sterling. 

    I don't have the flow points for Otto Frei since I haven't used
    their silver solder, but I think their gold solder is quite good. I
    don't like Hoover and Strong's gold solder, as it sort of blobs and
    goes nowhere. 

    DH Fell's solder is quite good, flows very nicely, color match is
    very good, and takes less heat. However, look at the temperature
    difference in "hard" solder between DH Fell and Hoover and Strong
    which equates to a 125 degree difference. This is huge! 

    I did not realize there was such a huge difference in temperatures,
    until I actually took the time to research all up the flow points for
    silver solder from various suppliers. It answered a lot of questions
    when I was fabricating, or when students were working. They thought
    there was something wrong with the solder they purchased. I wrote
    down all the info and post it on my bench when I order. 

    By listing some of the suppliers, you can see that the varying
    temperatures will actually give you a larger range of Easy to Medium
    to Hard. 

    I keep a large case of small containers which have every kind of
    solder from every manufacturer and their flow rate listed on each
    one. I realize that it is kind of OCD to do this, but it's very handy
    everything right in front of me. 

    I can't stress enough the importance of documenting materials when
    fabricating work. 

    Here are some useful tips in approaching soldering in fabrication: 

    1) play around with your design and nail down your final sketch 

    2) now de-construct your design into steps understanding what solder
    you will be using with which section. This is like an imploded
    drawing like you get at Ikea. 

    3) document your progress as you build with what stones you chose
    and who you purchased them from, measurements and sizes of metal
    stock and vendor, pressure on a rolling mill if you used one, etc. 

    By going through these steps, when you need to build something
    again, all your documentation will be done and you won't spend YOUR
    precious time re-inventing the wheel. 

    Silver Solder Wire Flow Points 

    Hoover and Strong Best color match to sterling silver 

    Easy 1250 F
    Medium 1295 F
    Hard 1490 F

    Rio Grande Good color match in Easy and Medium

    Easy 1325 F
    Medium 1360 F
    Hard 1450 F

    Hauser and Miller Slight yellowing in their solder, but good for
    beginners 

    Easy 1325 F
    Medium 1360 F
    Hard 1450 F

    DH Fell Good color match and good flow for all solders. Just be
    mindful of their temperatures if you are mixing one vendors with
    another. 

    Easy 1240F
    Medium 1275 F
    Hard 1365 F

Hope this helps!
Karen Christians
Cleverwerx
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