Hi Folks,
Is there a recipe for making a type of “stop-flow” to keep soldered
joints from flowing at home?
Thanks,
Chris
I have heard of and tried a couple. White out that is water based
works. (apparently there are are water based and chemical based
solutions, and for your safety it needs to be the water version.) It
smells like burning paper, but comes off in pickle. Graphite is a
less smelly route- really mark up the solder seam with graphite; this
has also worked for me, but white out was better. Now, to the ones I
have not tried, but heard of… Hair grease from dirty hair. Let your
hair go a couple extra days without washing, and use it to our
advantage. Get the seam dirty, and the solder will not flow. Finally,
yellow ochre is a mineral sold for this purpose. It is applied to the
seam or areas you do not want solder.
Melissa S.
White out from an office supply is supposed to work great.
yellow ochre paint ( windsor & newton makes a block, or you can buy
it in powdered form, etc.) add water with a paint brush and mix to a
creamy consistency, then use… it’ll work just fine… there’s always
liquid paper but i find it noxious and not as effective…rer
Hi Chris,
I use Milk of Magnesia - read about it on a post here years ago.
Paint it on and let dry or dry with torch. It works, it’s cheap and
it’s nontoxic!
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In regards to the stopping flow of solder and multiple suggestions
thereof.
None of them really works. If you get your work hot enough, solder
will flow. So the application is limited to instances where one can
get away with substandard joints by limiting temperature of
soldering. Even in these circumstances it causes a lot of harm by
contaminating soldering surfaces and further worsening joint quality.
A much better way is to control solder flow through joint design. In
my DVD “Balerina Ring” such method is exploited in joining center
setting to the stone cluster. Because baguettes are very sensitive to
seats irregularities, solder has to be kept from stone trench, which
also plays a role of joint surface. This creates a paradox.
Introducing flow preventing compounds would definitely screw up the
joint, and not doing anything would allow for solder seepage, which
would later on would create difficulties in setting phase.
It is not possible for me to provide technical details due to
pictorial nature of explanation required. For interested parties I
recommend above mentioned DVD. For more follow this link
Leonid Surpin
Just one caveat Re: whiteout – (depending on how much/often it is
used) it makes the pickle so cloudy that you can’t see whatever you
are groping around trying to find in the pickle pot!
Margaret
Since I make heavy gauge sterling buckles and other heavy gauge
jewelry such as bolo’s,etc., I need a stop flow that holds up under
real heat. What I have found that works best for my needs is
powdered red rouge mixed with alcohol to a slurry consistency. Just
be sure to clean it off after soldering because being of iron
oxide,you don’t want to put it in your pickle, it will coat your
piece with a pink coating, which can be removed, it’s just extra
work. John Barton
Chris,The best I’ve ever found was just the tried-and-true yellow
ochre with a little water in a paste.
Gary Strickland
I mix powdered yellow ochre with alcohol rather than water…it dries
very fast. A tip I learned on Orchid!
Vera Meyer
galleryvera.com
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Keeping solder from flowing where you least want it is quite simple,
and neither white-out, nor yellow ocher are the best choice. Everyone
should know that some brands of desktop white-out correction fluid
contain CADMIUM, a toxic and dangerous metal which should NEVER be
heated or used when there is a chance of exposure such as inhalation.
Yellow ocher (or ochre) is a traditional jewelry material, which
when burned, becomes rouge, the polishing material, a type of iron.
Because yellow ocher is iron, it will seriously contaminate pickle
solutions, and otherwise complicate cleaning processes. THE best
choice for a solder stop is the grey gel which Otto Frei, Rio Grande,
and other suppliers sell as “Heat Shield Paste”, or something
similar.
This usually comes in a 1 pound white plastic tub about 4 inches
tall Vigor # 54.448) This stuff is great! Smooth, with no abrasive
contents, it can be applied with a finger, with a brush, a stick, or
whatever, and washes off easily. At about $14 a pound, it’s worth
every penny, just don’t let it dry out and that much will probably
last one several years.
Kerry Drew
Arakawa-ku, Tokyo
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DON’T USE WHITE-OUT!
Please see my comments elsewhere, but again, some types of so-called
"White-out" contain a toxic (poisonous) metal called CADMIUM, which
causes CANCER and other nasty stuff.
All good jewelry supply companies sell heat-shield paste of some
kind which will work as well or better than white out.
KERRY
only thning about red rouge slurry is that red rouge contains some
iron rerlated material- so it could affect some pieces ONLY if enough
pieces soldered with rouge based “stop-flow” were tossed into the
pickle without first rinsing the compound off…rer
it makes the pickle so cloudy that you can't see whatever you are groping around trying to find in the pickle pot!
Take a plastic cup, drill holes in the bottom and attact a wire bail.
Suspend in the pickle and drop the item to be pickled in it. Shazam!
No groping.
Jerry in Kodiak
Could you supply the references to cadmium and whiteout please?
Take a plastic cup, drill holes in the bottom and attact a wire bail. Suspend in the pickle and drop the item to be pickled in it. Shazam! No groping.
Great idea Jerry! Thanks. Kerry, Thanks for the info about Cadium in
white out. I’ll stick with graphite from now on because am not huge
fan of heat shield. Oh, and looked up… Yellow ochre is also an
iron oxide, so would need to be cleaned of regardless of whether or
not it got heated before pickle.
Leonids, the point of the stop flow is to keep the solder from
flowing to an area when doing more solder joints than a few joints.
Although it will not stop the solder from melting, it can keep area
clean of solder because solder will not flow to dirty metal.
Everyone should know that some brands of desktop white-out correction fluid contain CADMIUM
Can you tell us which brands contain cadmium, or provide a link to
the I’ve just read more than a dozen MSDS’s for
correction fluids, and haven’t found one that has cadmium. Most use
titanium dioxide as the pigment, and the only concern seems to be
deliberate inhalation of the solvents used as carriers. The original
“White-Out” brand used trichlorethylene, but that was changed long
ago.
Al Balmer
Pine City, NY
To keep the pickle from getting all murky I rinse off the ochre or
whatever I am using before I put the item into the pickle. If it is
stubborn, I use a soft toothbrush to get it off.
Alma
Leonids, the point of the stop flow is to keep the solder from flowing to an area when doing more solder joints than a few joints. Although it will not stop the solder from melting, it can keep area clean of solder because solder will not flow to dirty metal.
Very few of my pieces have less than a hundred soldered joints.
Eternity Ring in size 8 has 88 mm circumference on the outside. That
is 29 10 pointers. Each diamond setting has 6 soldered joints - for a
total 174 joints. General construction joints brings the number into
180 range. At no time have I ever used any “stop flow” recipes. Also,
I only use hard solder. I do not believe in using different solder
grades in manufacturing. Temperature control and joint design is the
key. Nothing else is needed.
Leonid Surpin
I have used this paste with very very good results. Part Number:
154.450
Technoflux Cool Paste-120ml tube from Otto Frei. It is only 14.95
and the tube lasts a long time.
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1ft
Gloria (Hemlock Hollow Creations)
Tennessee
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