Hope you don’t give up on the Orchard list after getting replies
like the one from Rex below. That kind gentleman should be
ashamed of himself for both wasting the lists bandwidth and for
offering sarcasm as a professional response to a sincere request.
Sabinea do follow the safety proceedures and either drill that
tiny hole or try this. Next time you are going to solder two
halves of a hollow body together lay a Horse hair or two across
the seam before you bind the two halves together and solder. It
seems to create a trace of carbon which hinders the flow of
solder and leaves a small hole. It would be large enough for the
gases to escape. It should still be much smaller than a drilled
hole and would be harder to detect after completion. I believe
this was discussed in Oppi Untracht’s book Jewelery Concepts and
technology. Either way it is an age old technique that you might
want to explore further.
"Next time you are going to solder two halves of a hollow
body together lay a Horse hair or two across the seam before
you bind the two halves together and solder."
I love this tip. But not every metal smith has access to a
stable. Do you think cat hair would work? Just kidding! I love
Orchid everyone is so great even if they do seem to have a few
disagreements. But this is what makes it work the best you aren’t
forced into thinking that there is only one way to do something.
Hi to all hollow forms makers, In 87 I had a special experince
whit this kind of work. A student of mine was soldering a 10 mm
silver hollow ball made of two hemispheres, after pickling we saw
that the seam was not completely soldered. I was over her
shoulder when she starts to heat it again. At the moment she
tried to put the solder, the ball exploded in a loud sound, one
part went straight on her cheek, the other one hit the wall.
There was a bloody half moon mark on her skin and the part who
hit the wall was completely bend. And I had a whistling soud in
my left ear for the rest of the afternoon. I think, if you do the
soldering of two hemispheres and get it at the first try you do
not have the problem of explosion because hot air has time to go
out, but if you try to re heat it, the air is catch inside and
have to exit, and the exit is the weakess place, in this case the
hot seam. Since this time, I drill holes in hollow forms. Vincent
Guy Audette
"Next time you are going to solder two halves of a
hollow body together lay a Horse hair or two across the seam
before you bind the two halves together and solder."
Horse hair can be found at any western-crafty type place like
Tandy’s. It is used to braid into hat bands, bridles and such. A
small bundle of hair would last a life time for most using it for
this purpose. If you plan to get this from Tandy’s you had better
hurry because I think they are going out of business.
Jim Loveland (who finally has something to contribute to this
list)
Actually I think cat whiskers would be a bit better than horse
hair. My cat sheds whiskers now and then, and I make a habit of
collecting them for those odd times when I need a stiff one
bristle brush. MP
I don’t know about cat’s hair, but an old trick in constructing
a hinge for a box was to insert a horsehair into the cheniers
which as it burns gives off a sulphurous fume which prevents the
flow of solder into the tubes. The original suggestion which
someone offered was to use the hair in order to maintain a very
small pin hole when soldering two hemispheres together, thereby
crerating a very small pin hole without the need to drill one,
which would be much larger. Many inexpensive brushes are made of
horsehair and these would serve as lifelong supply.
For what it’s worth JZ Dule