Hi all
I short while ago someone mentioned using actual thin gold wire
for welding rings instead of soldering with hard solder; it takes
pounding much better. Well, lately, with slightly heavier shanks,
I’ve been using .012" wire to fuse instead of solder. However,
many years ago I stopped using a borax slate for flux, and have
been using battern’s flux for ease of use. The problem is that
I’m having trouble getting the wire to flow(it doesn’t actually
flow, I really mean melt and fuse) and I’m beginning to guess
that the battern’s flux may be the culprit. When I went to the
borax slate, I got better results, but it is just too time
consuming to prepare every time I solder.
Any ideas?
Allan Freilich
Allan,
When I fuse gold to gold, I don’t use an additional piece,
(small wire). I just make sure the joints butt nicely, use
batterns flux and fuse them together. You must have an excellent
fit, but it works for me. Any other suggestions out there?
Elizabeth
Hi Allen,
I have been getting excellent results with welding gold. What I
do is keep a jar with boric acid and denatured alcohol. Just dip
the ring in the solution and light it on fire. When the alcohol
burns off it leaves the ring coated in boric acid. This does a
good job of preventing oxidation and I have not needed to use any
additional flux for welding.
I have had the best results using an acetylene/oxygen set up
with a small, hot flame. Most of my work is in 18K, 22K, 24K,
platinum. No trouble at all with this. It does work inower karat
gold, but is more difficult.
Best Regards,
Bill Raby