A few weeks ago, I made a 14K rose gold that was cracking and decided to turn it into 10K yellow. With the 10K yellow it rolled out just fine. The problem now is that when a I come to solder it with 14K hard solder, the gold melts before the solder. The alloy is now:
41.7% pure gold
35.9% Pure copper
22.4% pure silver
The solder was 14K hard solder from rio grande with a flow point of 804 degrees Celsius. I don’t know the liquidus of my homemade gold alloy but I am inclined to believe it is lower than that of the solder. Checking the flow point of rio gramde’s 10K hard, it is 802 degrees Celsius and so only 2 degrees lower. Do commercial 10K yellow golds melt at higher temperatures? This seems surprising abs they all have around 8% zinc or even more which to my knowledge lowers the melting point? Should I seek out a lower melting temperature 10K hard solder or maybe try a medium or easy? Would the join be too weak with a lower temp solder or is it proportional with the melting temp of the alloy being used?