To everyone who has posted tips, recipes and facts on prip’s flux
and encouraged others to try it I would like to give a heartfelt
thanks; especially to Peter Rowe. I was reading the posts, all the
while dismissing them because, until recently, I didn’t use silver
much and hardly ever work on lower karat alloys that prip’s was
recommended to be used with. But then someone mentioned that it is
great on white gold and red gold alloys and something clicked. I
made some prip’s and some Fred’s fabulous frip’s flux and really
made good use of it.
An example; I made a 3 stone ring (yellow center head with white
side heads) with a hand forged 18 kt white gold airline shank. As
you can imagine, there are many soldering steps to make and attach
the head and shank. Normally my rule is that if I make anything in
white gold then as I finish the parts and move on to the next step,
I polish the parts with no more than a tripoli compound. This is
due to the fact that since I use the hardest solder possible and
fuse whenever I can, I almost always get oxidation. If I am going
to have to repolish oxidized areas anyway why waste the extra step
of rouge polishing between solders. However, on this ring I rouge
polished after every step and by using the prip’s flux, I had no
oxidation and simply touched up the rouge with a small brush before
setting the stones. It was brilliant; and this is only one example
of how I have used the flux this week.
Still, there are some things I’d like some input on if ya’ll don’t
mind helping. I have gone through 2 spray bottles so far. Granted
they have been relatively cheap ones, but before I go out and buy
something more expensive, I’d like to get a recommendation of what
kind of bottle to use that won’t get clogged so easily; or am I
doing something wrong that it gets clogged in the first place?
Shaking the bottle well as I spray it helpful in keeping it
unclogged, but it’s also more unwieldy. As well, I have developed a
fine coating of flux all over my bench, regulators, safe, soldering
blocks and everything else in proximity to my soldering area (which
is pretty confined) so the sprayers that you recommend that have a
more precisely focused spray are most welcome.
Also, I’m sure that the borax, TSP and boric acid powder don’t
dissolve completely in the water, but I am getting pretty large
particles that just won’t dissolve at all, even when boiled for many
minutes. Should I grind the borax and TSP finer before placing it
in the water to dissolve, or am I just not boiling it long enough?
How do you store the stuff once it has been mixed and dissolved? I
have what I don’t use in a plastic jug. I shake it up well before
pouring it into the spray bottle. I mixed up the amounts listed in
Peter’s post on Prip’s and dissolved it all in about a quart of
water. Should I only have added part of the dry ingredients I mixed
to the water and saved the rest dry?
Wholehearted thanks to all,
Larry