Richard Laspada wrote:
HOWEVER, I do make my own solder and there just might be a kink in
that. Funny how I never considered that before .
Oh… that piqued my interest. How do you make your own solder?
Dianne Karg
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
103125.1115@compuserve.com
HOWEVER, I do make my own solder and there just might be a kink in
that. Funny how I never considered that before .
Oh… that piqued my interest. How do you make your own solder?
Dianne Karg
It would be my pleasure to share that with you Dianne, its simple United
Precious Metals in NY 1-800-999-FINE (cute phone number huh?) sells solder
alloy for everything you can imagine. It costs about $5 to $10 an ounce.
You then take the proper percentage of 24k gold and melt it together with
the right percentage alloy and roll it out thin in a sheet, and its soup
But, there is a concern about quality here, I think I might be heating the
solder alloy too hot when I make it and causing myself problems later on.
I’m going to pay close attention to that the next time I make some. You
will obviously save a lot of money that way.
Richard Laspada
In message 961011180003_103125.1115_JHG56-1@CompuServe.COM you happened to mention:
How do you make your own solder?
Dianne Karg
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
103125.1115@compuserve.com
Well, Dianne. I make the silver/copper eutectic alloy as a very nice solder.
Roughly 72% sil/ 28% copper.
A ‘eutectic’ of two metals is a particular mix which acts as a pure metal
with regard to (at least) melting charactetistics. It’s liquidus and solidus
are the same temp: 778deg celcius. So it has no ‘pasty’ stage like (especially)
easy solder. I like this in a hard solder. You find some manufactured
solders have a pasty stage (freeze range) between the liquidus and solidus
temps, so you can jiggle it about with the soldering pick. But eutectic goes
from solid to liquid it a split second and zooms right into the joint,
leaving a small filet (sp?). You know the filet? the way a soldered joint has
a new curve of metal at the joint, well this solder give very little. Hence a
slight or invisible line of solder is visible, and corners are sharp.
It’s recomm by Oppi!
Drawbacks? Well…
How to make it? This was your original question. Have you done any alloying?
Use clean dry electrical copper wire cut into even sized bits. You can add it
to clean stg scraps to make eutectic. You can make it from fine sil granules.
We’ll talk alloying procedure next time if that’s what you’d like.
Regards,
Brian
BRIAN ADAM - on Acorn RiscOS - NEW ZEALAND
Eyeglasses, optica-absurda … and other sight-specific jewellery
Please edit your replies well.
Richard Laspada wrote:
HOWEVER, I do make my own solder and there just might be a kink in
that. Funny how I never considered that before .
Oh… that piqued my interest. How do you make your own solder?
Dianne Karg
It would be my pleasure to share that with you Dianne, its simple United
Precious Metals in NY 1-800-999-FINE (cute phone number huh?) sells solder
alloy for everything you can imagine. It costs about $5 to $10 an ounce.
You then take the proper percentage of 24k gold and melt it together with
the right percentage alloy and roll it out thin in a sheet, and its soup
But, there is a concern about quality here, I think I might be heating the
solder alloy too hot when I make it and causing myself problems later on.
I’m going to pay close attention to that the next time I make some. You
will obviously save a lot of money that way.
Richard Laspada
Dianne,
I make my own solder also and rarely have a problem with it…For
silver I add about 20% brass (used cartridge casings with the primer
removed)to fine silver/sterling and roll or hammer it into sheet.For
gold I add about 5% fine silver to 14K gold and again hammer or roll it
into thin sheet.It is not plumb solder in other words the karat or
silver content does not equal that of sterling or 14K gold but it stays
within the U.S. laws regarding content and still allows stamping of
finished items as 14K or sterling.The one for silver solder using fired
cartridge casings has been around for awhile and is standard/
traditional American Indian procedure from the early 1920’s.
The color of the gold solder is about the same as commercial 10K
solder and the one for the silver solder is very white and not
significantly different from sterling…Gavin
Oh… that piqued my interest. How do you make your own solder?
I read in an enamleing book that you can mix equal parts of silver solder
with whatever karat gold to make solder, only they were talking about
alluvial gold (the raw stuff you find in nuggets). I s this how you make
your solder? Gavin also has a recipe for making silver solder, maybe some
would be interested in that? Dave
Art Jewelry for Conscious People
http://www.opendoor.com/stephensdesign/crystalguy.html