So, several questions come to mind. Does laser-welding of
silver, gold, and platinum demand the use of flux (which may be
what is giving my lungs fits)
No. You don’t use flux. For some metals, you’ll get better welds
if you use an inert gas shield, usually Argon.
and are they constructed in such a way as to conduct any
resulting fumes away from the operator?
Yes. They have vent fans that draw welding fumes out the back
through a fine filter which traps the metallic fumes.
The main danger is to your wallet, and occasionally annoying small
burns to the fingers when you miss. They sting, but do no real
damage.
Note that welding platinum is the easiest, and 18K yellow gold is
also easy, with lower karats of gold, or white golds, being
increasingly trickier, and more benefited by the use of Argon
shielding. Silver looks better with argon, but it it’s necessary
usually. However, silver is so reflective, and such a good heat
conductor, that it takes considerably more energy to laser weld than
most other metals (very high karat yellow gold, like 22K or 24K, is
also difficult), so if you’re doing lots of silver, in heavier gauges
of metal, you may need more than the lowest power lasers to get
decent results in a decent amount of time. But for mostly wire
construction, even the basic units should be fine.
Alpha Supply in Bremerton WA is a tools dealer who also sells, among
other things, new laser welders (I think mostly the current latest
model CPP machines) to jewelry factories in India. They take back,
in trade, the old units, which are usually Siro Alphalasers, either
the ALS-35 or ALS-35S, or similar units. Depending on the degree of
refurbishment needed to get them running, and which model (the
ALS-35S is higher power) and it’s age, etc, they’ve been selling
them here in the U.S. for prices between 13K and 17K or so. The
Siro lasers are the same ones that B&D sales sell (and also the one
pictured in the Rio Grande tools catalog. I don’t know how much the
currently new versions differ from these older lasers, but it’s my
impression that the design isn’t being modified a whole lot. they’re
fairly simple in terms of a lack of lots of bells and whistles, but
seem reasonably sturdy lasers. Like used cars, don’t expect them to
run like new, and some may need replacement parts sooner rather than
later. these things are NOT like a rolling mill, which if cared for
will last almost forever. They’re high powered electronics. Power
supplies can fail, optics can need replacement, computer control
boards can go bad, and all that jazz. and if you use it a lot, then
expect to replace the flash lamp (400-600) yearly or near to it. But
with that said, these lasers are a generally well accepted design,
have been working for a number of years, and likely can be expected
to work well for more of them too.
Peter
