They say it prevents fire scale, acts as a flux and you don’t need
pickle to clean up after soldering, just warm water.
I’m wondering - what do you all think of this? Has anyone tried it
yet?
I have no affiliation with the company- just curious and not too
adventurous with trying new products since budget doesn’t allow, at
this stage. But it would seem to be a great thing - - you could get
rid of pickle AND flux with this.
Nan
Nan Lewis Jewelry
Artisan-made fine jewelry… different!
I looked at the page - I haven’t tried the product, though. My
impression is two-fold: It’s REALLY expensive, and it’s looks like a
lot of trouble - warm the piece, spray (spray?) it, etc. I say Spray?
because that spray is going all over the place, day after day,
coating your whole bench, or you will need a special place, like we
need another special place. I’m sure it works, or they wouldn’t be
selling it, and you might just try an ounce.
I’m not sure what’s wrong with flux and pickle, though. It’s work
fine for centuries, now…
I looked up the MSDS and there are two ingredients listed on it by
CAS number. A quick search on the web tells me that 13-0386-2 is
diboron trioxide and that 77-6438-2 doesn’t exist. So either they
don’t want to tell us what is really in it or they’ve made a mistake.
Having said all that, I haven’t actually used any just thought you
might want to know about that detail.
i have tried firescoff and in my opinion 3M’s radial bristle discs
work far better, faster, and cheaper in the long run than the
product. Although if you like a spray on product, than it may be the
thing for you. Firescoff has few advantages over the traditional
boric acid/alcohol dip or Cupronil ( a much overlooked product in my
opinion) in that it is premixed, and doesn’t burn off as fast in my
tests as does boric,etc…but the trick with soldering is hit and
run…so extended periods of soldering, unless you are going through
an assembly requiring degrees of solder from hard to easy, seem
moot.BUT, you must apply the product to heated metal,( and while it
says it can protect stones already set, i wouldn’t trust Muffy
Purebred’s platinum and Sapphire heirloom pendant to the stuff),and
i tried granulation without a coating of copper based
glue-(essentially) firescoff didn’t work in that application for
me,And while the company touts “removing dangerous pickling acids
from the workbench”, the composition of firescoff seems more
dangerous than the pickle- which i don’t keep on my workbench!. Also
I have found 80/20 (reticulation silver) still requires stripping
strength pickle if there is a lot of texture or intricate,
constructed, or pierced surfaces to remove scale and/or residue left
from the firescoff…all-in-all I believe the 3M 's radial bristle
discs are superior as they get into every crevice, rise and fall in
your work piece, and require a simple burst of air to remove any
clinging micro-particles that can be refined in the end. With
firescoff one needs to install a trap to catch those traces of metal
for refining which, with the precious metals market as it is, is
becoming more a concern as the cost of our materials rises, and their
own MSDS warns against the product reaching a waterway, overspray on
your bench and other hazards, that i personally don’t want to have to
deal with…and in some cases pickling is still necessary. So I can’t
recommend it over traditional products yet, as there are more steps
involved, making my art,craft and science take more time than
necessary…but i urge you to try it for yourself.
I have tried a sample bottle of it. It is an interesting material. I
was very pleased with its abilities to act as a fire scale preventer
and heat shield. It did not completely dissolve in warm water but
what little residue was left went away totally rapidly in pickle. It
works better than prips or stop-ox for the protection of the work.
It is not as good a flux as a paste flux like handy flux. It did a
great job of protecting the surface finish on hard to protect
surfaces like copper and sterling. The spray pattern from the bottle
is a little too broad and I felt like a too much of it was wasted. It
is not cheap but I will definitely keep some around for certain
soldering operations. I would recommend that everyone who solders
should at least try it, I think it is a good tool to add to the kit.
Jim
James Binnion @James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
I looked up the MSDS and there are two ingredients listed on it by
CAS number. A quick search on the web tells me that 13-0386-2 is
diboron trioxide and that 77-6438-2 doesn't exist. So either they
don't want to tell us what is really in it or they've made a
mistake.
diboron trioxide is the formal name for boric acid the other numbers
chemistry is probably considered proprietary information
James Binnion @James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts