Hello Julie,
Sweat soldering usually works well to solder gold to silver. As you have read, temperature control is important, so use the extra easy solder (lowest temp).
I agree to the idea of keeping the flame under the silver base. It will be hard to know when flow has occurred though, so you can pull the torch away.
I hope you will share your experience when you are done!! You brave soul, you.
Judy in Kansas, where the prediction is for another tornado watch later today.
Hi,
Thank you for your advice and support!
This project sure has taken up slot of brain cells…
it started with a friend bringing me a broken cross (a stone had fallen out) and asking if i could make something similar, but with her children and grandchildrens birthstones…with gold bezels on sterling…
it looked simple enough…thin bezel strip, and internal strip of wire for the stone seat…round wire at the base of the bezel…soldered onto flat sheet…no gap showing between the bezel base wire and base…meaning extra thick round wire, to get the height, was filed back, flush
the edges around the cross were soldered/ filed cleanly…no joint showing between the round/ half round wire and sheet
my brain started to worry about my ability to solder everything together, without ending up with the unsightly pitting and gaps around the edge of the cross (from burning out the zinc, over heating, etc)
10 bezel seams, 10 internal seat wires, 10 round wire bezel border seams, 20 joins to the base…lots of ochre…
the second option i considered was to buy thicker gold strip so that i could cut the seats…which is usually the look i prefer…and would do away with the internal seat strip…i bought thick strip and tested in sterling…
the third option i considered was to buy pre-made bezels for the calibrated stones…so i purchased test options in sterling, but they were a bit thin for my liking and were not uniform in appearance due to the stones being different sizes/ heights…
i priced all the options out, considering material costs/ waste and labor differences
then i considered the fourth option…designing in CAD would eliminate the seam solders…especially the one around the edge of the cross…i could achieve uniform bezels and bezel borders of my desired thickness…i might buy less waste (until i decided to make everything solid for best practices!)…i could do a homogenous fixed bail…i could make it “beefier”…and easier than carving the waxes…
then…i started thinking about switching to a hinged enhancer bail…i purchased some samples in sterling…not perfect…i prefer a fixed bail, no jumprings…but i may have to give that up…trying a fixed version in CAD…may end up fabricating…
the cost overruns, before actual production, are mounting…the stones and pre made settings i bought were sold in “packs”…so i have “extra”…i have “inventory”…
it is a learning/ thinking exercise…
now my thinking has turned toward the soldering of gold to silver…probably should have been my first concern…
i am almost in the home stretch…i hope i don’t mess up soldering the gold to the sterling base
i could order extra sets and practice…but that would be pricey in 3D print and gold costs…since i need the gold…i cannot just test in sterling
i will test soldering scrap gold to sterling…it wont be the same mass but it will give me an idea of what i might be up against…practice my heat control…holding in tweezers or third hand…easy (or extra easy) silver solder…
the scary thing is this type of scenario is common in my life…my “firsts” projects always seem to get “big” and go this way…
julie
I solder 18K to SS quite frequently. I and every jeweler that I know uses medium silver solder to solder 14 or18K to SS.
At the factory we produced the Erté jewelry project for Circle Fine Art. Many of the pieces were SS and 14K gold.
Google “Erté Art to Wear”.