I have a 14k yellow money clip that I need to attach a 14k charm to.
If I solder the piece to the clip, followed by 60 minutes in a kiln
at 360 C, air cooling afterwards, am I going to end up with a nice
springy money clip? Or, am I going to have that sinking feeling that
I need to replace a money clip for a customer?
I’ve searched for answers and this process was the best I could come
up with. I can heat sink the curve in the clip to keep from
annealing it while soldering if that would help to maintain the
spring properties that it already has. I’m just not sure if I really
need to anneal the whole piece prior to age hardening it, or if this
quick heat soak will work just fine for me.
The age-hardening thing is a James Binnion question. Have you
thought about using cold connections like rivets or cutting out some
tabs you can lift up and use as prongs to hold the charm?
Just another approach from Kansas, where it is still cold!
I have a 14k yellow money clip that I need to attach a 14k charm
to. If I solder the piece to the clip, followed by 60 minutes in a
kiln at 360 C, air cooling afterwards, am I going to end up with a
nice springy money clip? Or, am I going to have that sinking
feeling that I need to replace a money clip for a customer?
While you will get a hardening effect it is not from aging but rather
it is called ordering. You do not need to solution treat (anneal) to
facilitate ordering, just heat to somewhere around 380 C for an hour.
This will harden the metal but probably not give you anything near a
spring temper. So if you anneal the clip while soldering on it it
will probably not work very well after that. If you can really heat
sink the bend in the clip and get in and out fast you may be
successful with a torch but it is a tricky job. I think your best bet
is using a laser.
I’m assuming this is your garden variety folded sheet construction.
Seems to me you’d have iffy results trying to heat sink the bend and
not overheat the charm. Even if you do manage to not anneal the bend
you will anneal the face of the clip and the area where hard meets
soft will produce a crease in short time. Here’s a few ideas…
Go ahead and anneal the bend if you feel the metal is already overly
work hardened (old clips have a tendency to be cracked at the bend)
Then/or carefully straighten it out, not dead flat just roughly 180
degrees. Do your soldering. Then refold the bend. Use steel rods
rather than a plier.
Solder a couple of wires to the back of the charm and drill
corresponding holes in the clip. Rivet it. You may have to open the
clip somewhat for access but its no biggie. If you had it lasered I’d
follow this same setup.