Hi Dagne,
I have a saying around my studio which is “Mo Betta Heat.” You are
correct in assessing that your heat is not enough to get the solder
to flow.
Butane is a pretty anemic heat source. The other question is what
kind of solder are you using and who is the manufacturer? I have
several kinds of solder from different companies, some are better
than others, some for color match, some for flow, and some don’t do
anything no matter how much heat you heat it up.
Soldering is an art form. It is a combination of heat, good fit,
cleanliness, all kinds of things. See my post
I love to solder. For me it is the perfect alchemy between joining
one piece to another. I have to decide which goes first and in what
order. For some it is stone setting, others forging metal, but for
me, it’s construction all the way.
Is there are reason why you cannot have larger compressed gas in
your work space?
-k
Karen Christians
M E T A L W E R X
50 Guinan St.
Waltham, MA 02451
Ph. 781/891-3854 Fax 3857
http://www.metalwerx.com/
Jewelry/Metalarts School & Cooperative Studio