Subject: Soldering

From: [email-masked] (The Rifleman)
Date: 8 May 1995 22:08:27 GMT

I looked at the FAQ entry on soldering/brazing but it was rather
incomplete.  Can anyone explain how one would go about about soldering a
small metal attachment onto a larger metal piece?  There is wood on the
larger piece, about 6" or so away.  I can protect this with Brownell's
"HEAT" compound, which supposedly slows down heat transfer (by
evaporating I would guess)--I hope this is enough.  I believe wood's
flashpoint is 450 F.  

The solder melts at 1100 F.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 "If you're on a confiscation team, before you kick in the next gun owner's
        door, you've got to ask yourself. . . . Do you feel lucky!?"
---------------------- NRA  Libertarian Party  FIJA ------------------------

---

From: [email-masked] (David Falk)
Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 18:48:45 GMT

PeterWRowe ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Re soldering on something with wood in it...

: When I have to work on (such as sizing the shank) a silver ring with heat
: sensative stones, some way of heat silking the stone is needed.  Silver is
: the finest heat cunductor of the metals, and this is no trivial matter. 
: But it's easy enough to do.  The stone, along with surrounding metal can
: be covered in a number of commercially available compounds, but why waste
: your money?  I wrap the top of the ring in tissue paper or cotton, and
: then soak the above in water.  Sometimes I just support the whole ring,
: stone down, in a bottle cap full of water, leaving the portion to be
: soldered, and about 1/2" or so to each side, exposed and dry.  You have to
: work fast enough with the tissue or cotton to keep the water from all
: evaporating.  Not a problem with the bottle cap or other container, but
: the water will boil and spit merrily, which can spatter (ouch).  A similar
: approach should work with your wood.  If you want to protect it from the
: water, oil or wax if first.    In general, I've found that this kind of
: protection works better than the compounds, as the tendancy is not to use
: enough compound, or for the layer of compound next to the metal to dry,
: thermally isolating the metal from the rest of the compound, allowing heat
: transfer where you don't want it.  Water itself doesn't mess you up that
: way...

Only try this with stones, IF YOU FEEL LUCKY.  Too many jewelers have
learned the hard way that this is not a good idea, especially with 
silver.  It is never safe to solder silver with the stones in place.
And it doesn't matter if you use water, a patented cooling gel, or whipped
cream.  The preferential path of the heat is through the silver.  Once a 
layer of gel or water heats up, the heat will continue to penetrate the metal
and ultimately discolor or crack your stones.  

Always remove the stones first or risk have them fall out in peices.

IMHO, way too many jewelers try this stunt.  And in my opinion, it's 
because bad jewelry making/repair courses tell them they can get away 
with it.  Repairing silver jewelry with the stones in place is one of 
the riskiest operations a jeweler can perform.

Later....

Dave.
-- 
David Falk, Junior System Administrator, SoftQuad Inc.  <[email-masked]>  
<!ENTITY Subliminal_Message    "Do a Nice Thing for Someone Today"  >
*My opinions do not represent those of SoftQuad Inc.*            IRC: Sutekh 
**KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD... FOREVER****Linux, choice of a GnuType Generation**