How do you securely close an open gold-plated jump ring?
I was wondering how to securely close a gold-plated open jump ring.
My experience with gold-plated items is next to zero. I’m pretty
sure heating it to solder it closed would destroy the plating and
welding it closed with my Orion welder would also be fruitless. Any
tips?
How do you securely close an open gold-plated jump ring?
Risk breaking the gold plating or replace with gold filled and you
can not solder.
Richard Hart G.G.
Denver, Co.
How do you securely close an open gold-plated jump ring?
Your really putting the cart before the horse. Gold plating of base
metal jewellry is always done AFTER all assembly work, including
silver brazing up of jump rings. Now if it was me Id make sure I had
some spare rings and run a trial with one of these as follows.
you need the tinyest piece of brazing foil some 2/1000 in thick just
small enough to go between the 2 ends of the jump ring. then cover
with easyflo flux and heat very carefully. You might just get away
with it. Now if it was say 10% rolled gold then it would work.
However if the piece is important, to you or a customer, then it
might just be worth using a 9carat gold jump ring, cost nominal.
Hope this helps.
Ted
Dorset
UK
Gold plated jump rings are seldom soldered. A secure method of
closing them is to close the ends past each other side by side and
then spring them apart and twist into alignment. This leaves the ends
pressing together under tension. Deforming the jump ring into a
slight oval with the joint on a flatter side will ensure that the
other links will not bear on the joint. This is done before closing
under tension.
Un-soldered jump rings work better if they are heavier than soldered
jump rings.
Soldering will cause most of the gold plating on the jump ring to
soak into the base metal and disappear. Welding with the Orion will
leave the weld area un-plated. The only remedy is a plating setup or
a pen plating setup.
As a jewellery repair specialist I need and use all of the above,
and have gold plating solutions in 24K, 14K Yellow, and 14K Pink
which can be applied either by dipping or by a pen…this covers most
situations.
Alastair
Risk breaking the gold plating or replace with gold filled and you can not solder.
Sorry, posted too late at night, “Breaking”, cracking the gold
plating, you can solder gold filled, not gold plated.
Richard Hart G.G.
Denver, Co.