Evil solder

Hi All,

Poor solder is the scapegoat for our nasty human habit of not washing
our hands. After pulling your hair out from frustration, you get
oils on your hands. Or going out for a smoke to calm down, you get
tar and nicotine on your hands. Grabbing a donut, chocolate bar, or
potato chip can coat your fingers with oils. Petting the dog/cat,
etc., or even scratching your nose you will pick up oil and dirt.
Also, putting hand lotion on before work puts oils on your hands. So,
be sure to wash your hands before handling the solder and
periodically clean the poor solder to wash away the real evil.

My 2 cents,

Marta in Sacto

You know, I’ve been reading all these notes about how horrible solder
is. Now I have to submit my thoughts. Solder will ONLY flow when
the metal is hot enough. So those who are having difficulty getting
their solder to flow, have to consider their: Torches, what kind of
metal they are working with, and maybe their flux.

When I had difficulty soldering, I thougt it was because of:
contamination BAD SOLDER wrong flux My problems actually stemed from NOT
getting the piece HOT ENOUGH, I kept trying to make the flame
smaller, less contamination that way, right??? Didn’t accomplish a
thing. HOT FLAME, use a plumbers torch with propane if you must, to
get things to flow. Don’t worry about the dreaded "carbon floaters"
that many warn against ( that only happens when one is using oxy with
a gas!!!) I can solder gold, sterling and fine silver with my Smith
(not the mini torch) what I have is similar to the Prest-o-lite
silver smithing torch.

I’ve soldered fine and sterling silver, PMC, PMC + (haven’t tried the
24 k gold PMC yet), gold in various karats, from 10 - 22 and still
using the same torch. Have done fusing, melting for cuttlebone
casting . . . Maybe I’m just a Wizard when it comes to soldering . . .
I have the feeling that I can solder anything! )

Don’t need gremlins nor holy icons in my studio.