Rachel, I’m catching up on the last several Digests & thought I’d
throw my 2 cents in for this one. Regarding your question about My-T,
I use that and I usually only work with silver. Sometimes gold, but
it certainly works well with silver. When I was in school in Germany,
we used an equally neon-green flux as the My-T, although the teacher
couldn’t tell me exactly what it was, but since this was the same
color, I went with the My-T when I got back here. Been quite happy
with it.
If I’m worried about something flowing away with the bubbles (which
is often), I do a few things. One is (as someone else suggested too,
I think), I either flux the pieces separately & then combine them
once the flux has settled down & dried, or I just try to use a low a
heat as possible & dry the flux very slowly, and that minimizes
bubbles. Also, unless the flux is completely dry before I start
heating the piece up, I usually make use of my solder pick (just
holding it in my hand) to hold it down for those few seconds while
the bubbling is happening. I must have a good pick, though, it seems
everyone is complaining theirs are flimsy and bend too easily under
heat and pressure. My first pick was such a pick, though, a
relatively thin wire in a wooden handle. I replaced that with a
really nice all metal one. Don’t know what it’s made of, although I
always assumed titanium. Now I wish I remembered where I got it (I
don’t recall if I bought it in the US, or after I moved to Germany,
though I’d have to guess it was in Germany timing-wise), as I
haven’t seen one like it when I’ve recently looked around a bit. It’s
not super thick but it’s very strong, and I have no fear of it
bending. It’s also thin enough to hold very easily and get into tight
areas while I’m soldering (I pick solder most of the time). It is
round, though, so if I put it down flat on my bench, it can roll.
There was an interesting snippet very recently, perhaps in the “Art
Jewelry” I just got the other day, about making a soldering weight.
Sort of like a recent suggestion I read here, using a steel bar, I
think. This other idea, though, seemed a little more simple, just
using an old candy tin filled with something for weight, and of
course a steel wire coming out from it & bending down.
Oh, sometimes instead of my solder pick, if I want to have that (or
even just my hands) free for other purposes, or I want to make sure
the pieces are held down before anything starts, I use my third hand
and a pair of insulated tweezers. I make sure that the tweezers would
sit a mm or so below the height of the thing I want to hold down,
then rest them on that thing, and they hold it nicely without too
much force. I hope that makes sense.
Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher