I am trying to make small fine silver balls for fusing to my
enamels.
I made a coil and cut it up, placed it on the soldering board and
heated.
It made the spheres OK but they are not smooth and shiny.
They are hazy white and bumpy with minute tiny particles of silver
adhered to them.
I have tried pickling them and tumbling them but they are just not
right.
If I ball them up like a headpin and then cut them, they are nice
and clean and shiny but then I have to file off the little point
where they were attached.
Very time consuming.
I don’t have a charcoal block so maybe that is my problem.
I am using solderite board.
Would I have better results with a charcoal block?
Would I have better results with a charcoal block?
Yes, also make a small divot in the block where you place the wire
lengths that will give the spheres something other than a flat
surface to cool “into”.
Another option if you dont want to mar your soldering block or buy
charcoal is to put your soldering board on a slant, maybe 45 degrees
or so and put a bucket of water under it. Heat the silver on the
block and as it forms it will roll into the water quenting it into a
perfect little ball as long as the bucket is deep enough.
I read about this in a book describing how to make your own granules
for granulation, another option the book described was for the kiln
if you need to make many in which you make a steel box that can go in
the kiln layer it with charcoal then evenly spread pieces of silver,
more charcoal, and then more silver you get the idea…
After layering, you heat the box up in the kiln until the silver
reaches melting temperature and whala! Silver granules…
I haven’t checked this out myself as i enjoy watching the silver
balls hit the water, but I bet it works great…
Hi Roberta- That is frustrating to get those little pits! A couple
of things I do: make sure silver is clean to start with, then coat
rings or scrap with boric acid to keep clean while melting. A
charcoal block would help but even better if you can find a sheet of
mica it keeps the bottom smooth and flat and gives a great contact
area for soldering to a flat surface ( I am assuming you want them
flat, if not try rolling them into water off the charcoal block once
they have melted) also I find too much oxygen, i.e. a hissing flame,
tends to add to the pitting problem, hope this helps- GAIL
I’ve done a little bit of granulation and I would definitely
recommend a charcoal block. All you need to do is use the end of a
paint brush (your flux brush) and poke slight holes in the charcoal.
Cut your metal and put each piece in a hole. Then heat and you will
have perfect spheres.
This technique worked well for me when I was making fine silver
spheres.
Have you tried melting the silver in a crucible and then pouring it
into water? I wonder how smooth and round that would make them. I
would be interested to know the result. Best of luck finding an
easier way!
If you want to make a quantity of spheres exactly the same size,
each one must be consist of exactly the same quantity of metal. A
quick way to do this is to melt jump rings made of one size wire
wound on the same mandrel.
Keep a record of wire size, mandrel size and resulting bead size. You
can then quickly reproduce any diameter any time by duplicating these
two specs.
Ray Grossman
Inventors and manufacturers of
Jump Ringer Systems