Experience With Puk 2

Hello. i’m interesting in buy the puk 2. is a good machine for
soldering prongs? can i use metal to joint the surfaces? is good for
white gold?

thanks

The following is from the stuller assembly department:

Assembly’s feedback on the PUK 111

Alloy:

Overall the PUK 111 tacking ability worked best on all alloy
product. Normal circumstances, we cannot tack alloy with the Joyal
tackier, we use a crutch fixture (More time consuming). PUK 111
compared to the laser: To get the two parts to attach you have to use
silver, and most of the time gold wire to tack parts together. Note:
The reason for using gold wire on alloy is, we get a much better
adherence between the alloy components without the laser beam
reflecting off of the wire. The silver wire causes the laser beam to
reflect off of the wire not letting it penetrate properly between the
two components. The PUK 111 tacks the alloy together without any
additional metal needed.

Silver:

Overall the PUK 111 tacking ability worked excellent on all Silver
product. Compared to the laser: the PUK 111 works much better due to
reflections in the silver not letting the laser want to penetrate
the silver metal. Note: On the Laser you have to place a black marks
a lot on the area needed to be fused to eliminate reflection. Also,
you have to increase the voltage to the highest setting.

Gold / Platinum

The PUK 111 worked excellent on Gold and Platinum for tacking
components in general, and fusing pins on BBRC hinges. It did not
work very well when filling pits. Note: Most of the time the tungsten
probe penetrated the area being filled, basically causing a hard spot
after clean up.

Overview

The Joyal Tackier works best for assembly on most of the Gold and
Platinum products.

The Laser works best for filling pits, porosity, and rebuilding
prongs with accommodation of wire to get the job done.

The Plasma ark welder works best for production fusion of TBRC pins
and pearl enhancers. This is due to it’s consistent and continuos
welding capability.

The PUK 111 works best on tacking alloy and silver. Next, it works
excellent on tacking the 170300-tiffany head assembly. On bangle
bracelet’s, we have had success on fusing of the hinge pin. There
are other similar products that we will be able to use this machine
to assist in the assembly process.

Two drawbacks we have observed are:

  1. The tungsten electrode loses its shape rather quickly in the
    production process, causing the machine to function improperly.

  2. Once a component is tacked in place it is very difficult to break
    the tack. This is both good and bad (This causes problems when trying
    to straighten a head or component).

Over all we feel that this unit is in its infancy for future use in
the manufacturing area, and the jewelry industry. I would recommend
the PUK 111 for the trade shop jeweler who cannot afford the hefty
price for the large laser unit.

Andy “The Tool Guy” Kroungold

Im considering buying an electronic welding machine the PUK 2. I
would be grateful of any advice or comments.

Colin

Hi Nardon,

i'm interesting in buy the puk 2. is a good machine for soldering
prongs? can i use metal to joint the surfaces? is good for white
gold? 

I bought a PUK 2 about 3 months ago. It definitly has it advantages
in wire joining. It’s quick and joints are welds not solders. This
means if you have further soldering to do, the welds stay together.

The only draw back is that the joint are welds and the metal has to
come from somewhere. When you put two wire together, you can get
divots. In other words the two wire melt together forming a shallow
dish at the contact point. There are ways around this though. Yes it’s
excelent on White gold.

Jim
Jim Zimmerman
Alpine Custom Jewellers & Repair

Im considering buying an electronic welding machine the PUK 2. I
would be grateful of any advice or comments. 

There was an excellent article in a recent AJM magazine comparing
three welders, including the PUK.

I am a fan of the PUK 2 I have had mine for about 18 months now and
love it. It definitely has a learning curve but it is the best way
to fixture work for soldering I have ever used. You can also do
fabrication joining with it as well as pit and defect repair. Mine
has certainly paid for it self.

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550

James, one of the reasons for buying a puk was for repairing billets
and sheet during rolling rather than use solder which could lead to
problems when soldering the Mokume gane into pieces of jewellery. Am
I right in my thinking?

Mokume Gane apart, I think the Puk opens a new field for jewellery
design being able to use stones,pearls,Titanium etc in other ways
than up till now. So far I have only seen a Puk demonstated at a
trade fair by a salesman (not a jeweller) my tool dealer as yet has
not sold one so I have been unable to get a jewellers opinion (until
now).

Regards
Colin Waylett
Spain

James, one of the reasons for buying a puk was for repairing
billets and sheet during rolling rather than use solder which could
lead to problems when soldering the Mokume gane into pieces of
jewellery. Am I right in my thinking? 

In 20 odd years I have yet to figure out how to repair a
delaminating billet. You either got it right or you will fight it
through out the whole damn process and still end up with a sub
standard product. My normal solution for a delaminating billet is to
send it out for refining or if it is base metal it goes into the
scrap bucket.

Mokume Gane apart, I think the Puk opens a new field for jewellery
design being able to use stones,pearls,Titanium etc in other ways
than up till now. So far I have only seen a Puk demonstated at a
trade fair by a salesman (not a jeweller) my tool dealer as yet has
not sold one so I have been unable to get a jewellers opinion
(until now). 

I believe there is lots to be explored with using the PUK I am just
starting to see some things that I can do with it.

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550

james, you are right, there is a place in the industry for the puk.
we use it at stuller for silver and different types of alloy. i hope
you stop by the stuller booth in the agta area. the tool guy

James,

Are you still planning to offer a class on operating the PUK in
April?

Janet