Rio's Hot spot soldering machine

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi,

Does anybody have experience with the Hot spot soldering machine
from Rio Grande? Can it be used on regular jump rings or just with
soldered filled jump rings?

The catalogue said one thing/their phone rep. another/my husband has
an opinion…I’m totally lost. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.

Liz

2

Hello Liz,

Does anybody have experience with the Hot spot soldering
machine from Rio Grande? Can it be used on regular jump rings or
just with soldered filled jump rings? The catalogue said one
thing/their phone rep. another/my husband has an opinion....I'm
totally lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have extensive experience with this machine and I apologize for
the misunderstanding, but yes it can be used on both solder-filled
or regular jumprings. I’ll share a little info on the differences of
using both.

Sterling solder-filled jumprings are actually fine silver with an
internal core of copper and then an internal core of solder inside
that (WOW, that is so cool!), that equals.925. Because the
solder-filled jumprings are fine silver externally they don’t
oxidize or discolor when heated, so there is very little post
soldering clean-up work. Basically all you have to do is apply a
liquid flux, wipe off any excess, make sure the joint is very tight
then solder.

Sterling silver jumprings need a paste solder added to the joint.
But you have to make sure none of the solder is touching the carbon
electrode as this will cause electrical arcing and scare or damage
the jump ring. By having to add the paste solder this increases the
production time in two ways. First, it takes time adding just the
right amount of past solder in just the right place. Second, after
soldering you now have typical post soldering clean-up work.

Hope this clears things up for you.

Thackeray Taylor
Rio Grande Technical Sales and Support
technicalsupport@tbg.riogrande.com
800-545-6566

3

Hi Liz

I once purchased the hot spot but returned it in two weeks as it was
not working well on regular jump rings I think you need solder filled
jump rings that Rio sells. Now we have the PUK II works great but big
price difference between the two machines. If your budget allows it I
would recommend the PUK, it does a lot more than weld jump rings.

Gary