Cold Heat Soldering (coldheat.com) I have one of these and want to
know if I can use it with sterling silver to close jump rings?? IF
yes, do I need to use a certain kind of solder?
thanks
Looks like a neat tool. The site says it gets up to 800 degrees so
that would eliminate silver solder. You’ll have to use one of the
soft solders with appropriate flux.
I might get one of those.
Cold Heat Soldering (coldheat.com) I have one of these and want to know if I can use it with sterling silver to close jump rings?? IF yes, do I need to use a certain kind of solder?
This appears to be a slightly fancier, cordless soldering gun. It
would use lead solder, not hard solders like we prefer to use for
jewelry. You might be able to fill the gap in jump rings with this,
but strength would be less than with silver or gold solder, and
there would be no color match. Have a good look at a book on jewelry
making to understand the difference between this kind of melt-on-top
solder, and a real molecular bonding with hard solder.
M’lou Brubaker
Minnesota, USA
Hi Pamela,
Cold Heat Soldering (coldheat.com) I have one of these and want to know if I can use it with sterling silver to close jump rings?? IF yes, do I need to use a certain kind of solder?
The answer is ‘Yes you can’.
But the real answer is "NO you should not’.
The solder used with electric soldering irons is a base metal, used
to be mostly lead, now it’s tin or some other metal. This does a
number of things to precious metals. It contaminates the precious
metal. It probably will reduce the precious metal content in the
finished piece so that it can no longer be stamped or sold as
sterling. When polished, the solder joints will probably be
noticeable.
The solders used with precious metals are usually made from mostly
the metal they’re being used on. The problems listed above don’t
exist. However, they present one problem the soft solders (those that
melt around 500F) don’t They require about 1200F to melt. This
requires the use of a torch.
For closing jump rings, a small butane fueled torch & paste solder
works well. If you’ve got unlimited funds to spend, a pulse arc
welder or a laser welder also will work, no solder needed.
Dave
I got my cold heat as a gift for a well meaning friend but mine
doesn’t work for that I tried it with easy solder it just didn’t heat
up the jr hot enough but it would have been nice had it worked lol
Silver & Cameo Heritage Jewelry
www.corneliusspick.com
Cold Heat Soldering (coldheat.com) I have one of these and want to know if I can use it with sterling silver to close jump rings?? IF yes, do I need to use a certain kind of solder?
Nope, for temporary jewelry repairs only. My sis got me one because
it touted being able to repair jewelry. Will only use the very
thinnest, easiest, rosin-core solder wire. Great for making repairs
on solar garden lights or circuit boards though.
not unless you want to use a solder that flows at below 800 degrees
F… some ez flow solders and radio shack type silver bearing pastes
do it, but they turn from silver to grey easily as the silver leaches
out…or reacts with chemicals in skin,cosmetics, etc. Tix solder
claims to stay silver and has incredible tensegrity but its been so
long since i’ve seen the stuff i don’t remember at what temp it
flows…better use a good hard solder from a reliable /consistent
producer like hoover and strong, handy and harman, DHFell, or one of
the myriad others… if you want a paste you might try
myuniquesolutions.com products. the pastes come in a range of
flow/hardness options and are great for large quantities of jump
rings soldered en masse… production line style.
Pam…for doing real jewelry work, those cold heat solder things
are worthless. They can be used to solder small copper wires together
and maybe copper or brass based costume jewelry findings but not
silver or gold etc. They can only be used with lead/tin soft solder
(i.e., solders that flow below 800 deg). I do not recommend you use
tin/lead solder around any noble metals…it is not only bad form but
can damage the metals. If you cannot use a propane/oxy 'little torch’
which is excellent for this type of work, I would advise you to look
for another method to close you jump rings…such as a blazer butane
torch.
Sorry bout that…cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in
SOFL where simple elegance IS fine jewelry!
Well, you have it in hand-- try it, and let us know how you make out
with it! Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did --I bought one of
these but ended up throwing it away. I couldn’t make it do ANYTHING.
(I experimented with it using electrical Radioshack-type solder,
which is very low temp stuff.)
I couldn't make it do ANYTHING.
Let me second this. A friend loaned me his unit. I wanted to solder
pin-backs (using low-temperature solder) with it. The pins are too
large to get hot enough to re-melt the solder, after I had melted it
onto the pinback (to hold it in place). It was even very difficult
getting the solder to melt onto the pinback in the first place, with
this type of unit.
All the best,
Judy Bjorkman
I used to be in electronics (broadcast engineer), so I am very
familiar with low-heat soldering. Pretty much an expert in fact. My
wife bought me one of the “cold heat” solder guns and the only
productive thing I have been able to do with it is repair a loose
connection on a circuit board in a keyless entry remote someone
brought in for a battery (I do watch and clock repair as well as
jewelry). My advice: Don’t buy one.
Dr. H. D. (Del) Pearson,
http://www.eaglecreekcs.com