Solder filled silver wire and jump rings

Jewelry Discussion
#1

i have recently purchased some solder filled silver wire from rio
grande to make a half persian 4 in 1 style bracelet for my wife.
the bracelet will be made completely out of 20g hand sawed jump rings
with a diameter or 3 mm that i have cut with the finest jeweller saw
i could find. i have never made any jewellery before but am pretty
proud of the bracelet that i have put together. all that i need to
do now is to solder all the links together. this is why i bought
the solder filled wire. i was under the impression that once heated
the lliks would all self solder and i would have a nice strong
bracelet. but this does not seem to be the case. before
experimenting on the bracelet i decided to try and seal a few loose
links. i am using a disposable propane brazing torch like the ones
used for plumbing. so far the only thing i have been able to do is
melt the rings. i heat them up until they glow and check them but
they are not sealed. i keep trying letiing them glow a little
brighter but still no luck. finally they melt. i have the rings
butted as closed as much as possible. and are held closed by the
little bit of tension or spring that the metal has. i am frusterated
and wondering it anyone can help me. is this something that i can do
with a torch or is there another way to do this without destroying my
bracelet or wasting the money i spent on the wire.

please help me
Mark

#2

Mark,

It sounds like you’re not using flux, which would cause exactly the
symptoms you’re describing. If you flux the join between the two
butt ends of the jump ring, the solder should flow between them. The
ring ends must be touching (solder will not jump a gap), so if they
aren’t you will also want to tighten them further using your pliers.
Don’t worry about getting them “out of round” at this point – you
can always pop them back on a mandrel of some type to re-round them
later. Even really tiny ones can be re-rounded on a pin, if
necessary.

You can buy commercial flux through Rio, Hagstoz, or any of the
jewelry suppliers. Dandix, Handy, and Grifflux are 3 of the better
known brands, but there are many out there that are suitable.

Good luck!
Karen Goeller
http://www.nolimitations.com

#3

Mark, I think that manufactories would run that chain through a
tunnel kiln to solder the links If I were making it, I would solder
the links one at a time. Each link has to be brought up to soldering
temperature before the solder will melt. You also need flux on each
joint. I have tried this sort of wire and found that a small chip of
solder helped. I’m not familiar with the chain pattern that you used.
I’m also a bit confused. Is the diameter of the links 3 mm or is the
diameter of the wire 3 mm?

Marilyn Smith