Agree on pulse arc or laser; You might check locally for trade shops ,findings suppliers,etc., who might know of a local shop. H-R superior electric welder might work, but harder to control??
Thanks rambalyn! Laserstar said to use black sharpie. I never thought about using other colors to better see through. Makes sense.
I’ve used 14 white laser wire and palladium silver wire, but never palladium white gold laser wire. I’ll have to try that.
Great tips! Thanks again!! Jeff
Jeff
Hi Judy,
thank you! “sacrificial metal” is a great term! i agree…and aspire to skillfully utilize !
julie
I use the 19K white laser wire from Stuller. This is a special alloy that was developed by them and some high tech jewelers. I use this on 14K white and 18K white. Especially good for rebuilding prongs on diamonds at very low powers and small diameter beam. I even use it sometimes on silver jobs that are delicate and heat sensitive. Reduced microcracking. This alloy wire only available from Stuller.
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great technique! thanks for the advice… this helps everyone…!!!
I’ve done many repairs of silver and soft stones such as turquoise, jet, coral, mother of pearl, &c. and always pulled the stones. I would use a sharpened flat graver and carefully insert it between the bezel and the stone. Once I had an open spot, I would continue around the bezel with the graver until it was completely free of the stone. The stone would nearly always be seated on something–usually either cardboard/paper or sawdust–and now and then glued. I dealt with glue by very carefully applying a little heat from underneath until the bond of the glue was broken. After that, I would use a piece of beeswax and remove the stone with one sharp pull. As soon as the stone was removed, I would set the piece on fire to burn off the dough on it and then proceed with the repair.
Opening the bezel in that manner inevitably left a few marks on the bezel, but those are easy to remove after the piece is repaired and the stone reset. I have seen my technique for setting stones roundly condemned as I used hardwood sawdust and CA glue, but stones I set in that manner did not come out unless they either broke or were pulled. When it became necessary to pull one of them to resize a ring, for example, it was not difficult; if, however, you do manage to damage the bezel, then it only takes a few minutes to replace it and file it to the height of the old bezel.
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this might sound like a dumb question but when you make the divot and put in a bit of solder, how do you spot heat to melt it without loosing the bezel?
I try to avoid post earrings, but these are some great solutions to the reasons why I avoid them. When I do make them, I punch or drill a small divot like Jo describes. This lets me get the post soldered where I want it rather than skittering around just before the solder flows. I make my own post wire and cut it long enough to fit in the jaws of my ring vise. I solder an earring to both ends of the wire so that I have a handle to hold on to when I am polishing the earrings either by hand or in the ring vise. Before I cut them apart, I hang on to each earring and twist the assembly back and forth to test the solder joints and harden and straighten the wire. If they are sterling you can also heat harden them in a kiln. I use a tapered piece of hardwood with holes drilled through at different widths to cut the posts to a measured length. Again, I really don’t like making post earrings…Rob
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I can’t comment on the way others do it, but this is how I and every other American Indian silversmith I have known did it. For starters, I didn’t spot heat anything. I used a Prestolite air/acetylene torch with a big tip that I never changed, or in other words a big, bushy flame. I also used only easy flow wire solder and depended on the temperature differential between new and older solder joints to keep from unsoldering or melting everything. The melting points you will be dealing with are very close together, but they are sufficient to work with. Holding the post with a third hand, I would apply paste flux liberally, heat the piece just to the point where my solder would flow, then touch the wire solder to the joint. Everything by that point is starting to look a bit “melty,” but if you are careful, it works.
There is a downside to doing it this way, and that is firescale, which was always a problem for me. I dealt with it in polishing, but there are more effective ways of doing it, which is another matter entirely and one of many things that that I am learning more about on this forum. Good luck.
Michael
thanks for the reply. thought that low temperature solder would be what’s needed… I’ve used just an old Bernzomatic hand held propane/air torch for soldering… the piece gets heated through…but not enough to melt the bezel solder…cleaning firescale and flux from a small recessed place presents it’s own problems…I haven’t had too much of problem with concentrated sodium bisulfate pickle.