If you search this forum thoroughly, you’ll find some threads on soldering copper and brass. There are some solders which will color match pretty well. If you use all kinds of different alloys, the color will change with each, so you might want to standardize somewhat. You could also, with the piece with prongs you show, drill out holes for the prongs and solder from underneath. IDK anything about TIG and how that would match. -royjohn
royjohn said what I was thinking. The most efficient way to connect prongs after the piece is cast is to drill a hole that is exactly the size of your wire and solder from the back with the least amount of solder.
You used more silver solder than you needed to. If you used less solder then there won’t be as dramatic of a color difference.
There are also ways of covering up silver solder on brass/bronze with liver of sulphur and other patinas.
I’ve never used it and have no idea how well it melts, but yes, you can get brass solder from a jewelry supply company. Rio Grande sells it.
Your best solution, if possible, is to cast the prongs when you cast your whole piece. That way there is no issue with color match. I’m not sure what casting method that you’re using, but you show a wax model in your previous question, so adding in wax wires for stone setting before casting shouldn’t be too hard to do.
The TIG welder should do a good job filling holes and missing parts in a brass/bronze casting, but it’s probably not the right tool to weld prongs. But I’ve never done it, so maybe you can make it work?
Good question! This is a topic of interest to me in my work also. Like the others, I think some combination of brass solder, refining your design to minimize visible soldering joints and casting prongs would probably be your best and cheapest solution.
I have been considering TIG welding small brass tubing (6mm) because my pieces are often geometric and it’s a bugger getting the layout correct on a soldering board. With a tig welder I could use use a steel layout table and tack the pieces together for later welding or brazing. Anyone else here have any experience with tig welding brass tubing? Suggestions?
