I too, like to use home brewed boric acid/alohol as a firescale
preventive.
What I did to make the operation easier is to get a glass container
about 4" (100 mm) in diameter & 2" (50 mm) deep. The container has a
glass lid. The edges of the bowl & lid are ground to fit the
tightly. There’s very little evaporation, yet the top is easy to
remove & replace.
When getting ready to solder a piece, I remove the lid, place the
item in the alcohol, remove it, replace the lid, lay the item on the
soldering surface & ignite it to burn off the alcohol. Then I apply
the solder & solder. It works well for me. It takes longer to tell
about it than it does to do it.
The bowls are called ‘glass alcohol cups’ in most jewelry supplier’s
catalogs.
What I do is mix in a large jar but transfer to a teeny 10 ml
jar for use on the bench. That way if something goes wrong, or the
working jar gets contaminated, then it's not a big deal either way.
Trevor, I’m incorporating this idea in my shop today. Don’t know why
I never thought inside that box before, but thank you!
What I did to make the operation easier is to get a glass container
.... The edges of the bowl & lid are ground to fit the tightly.
Hello Dave,
Can you tell us where you purchased your “alcohol cup”?
A few years ago I had in mind to do basically the same thing you
describe and so purchased a couple so-called “alcohol cups” from a
large and respected jewellery supplier. Let’s just say that the fit
wasn’t tight enough because the alcohol seemed to evaporate just
about as fast as I could pour it in. In my frustration it occurred to
me that I would have been just as well mixing and storing my
borax-alcohol solution on the bench top for all the good the
expensive little “cup” did. I abandoned the idea there and then but
your description got me to thinking that it might be worth trying
again.
What I do is mix in a large jar but transfer to a teeny 10 ml jar
for use on the bench.
Trevor, I'm incorporating this idea in my shop today.
Hello James,
I’m happy to hear you found that useful. FWIW a great source for
sturdy little jars are caviar jars. Not that I have the taste or
budget for caviar but a friend did and that was where I got a number
of the handy little fellows.
For some reason the glass in those little jars is often incredibly
thick so they’re quite heavy for their size and tend to stay where
they’re put. They’re also pretty tough: I’ve seen them survive more
than one bouncing trip across the shop floor.
Can you tell us where you purchased your "alcohol cup"?
I got them from Progress Machine & Tool (www.progresstool.com) ,
800-841- 8665 in Los Angeles. Their 2003 catalog (page 184) lists 5
sizes, from 2 7/8" to 4 1/4 diameter.
Usual disclaimers, just a satisfied customer.
Dave
Progress Machine & Tool
Help others make informed buying decisions with Progress Machine &
Tool. We welcome your opinions and experiences with their products,
ordering, customer service and and over all satisfaction.
A comment on Trevor’s posting and a question for John Burgess. I’ve
been using a wide-mouth glass jar with ground stopper for my
alcohol-based flux. It’s recycled from a water chemistry lab.
The problem I have is that the solution gets on the ground surfaces
and the boric acid leaves a deposit, effectively sealing the stopper
in place. I don’t experience much alcohol evaporation, but do have
to carefully “pry” the stopper loose each time I begin a session at
the bench. Periodically it’s necessary to chip the deposits back
into the jar and wipe down with some rubbing alcohol. Obviously,
this is done only when there is no flame around!!
I’ve thought about using a tiny bit of glass grease on the stopper
and rim. John Burgess, what do you think? Would that help with
this deposit problem or make things worse?
the alcohol/boric acid firecoat is supposed to catch on fire. The
alcohol burns off leaving the boric acid smoothly covering your
piece.
Hello Jennifer,
I’m not sure I follow you. I think you might be saying that one uses
a large container so you can fit your whole piece in it for a nice
dunk and then torch it, yes? So basically it’s your firecoat, if I’m
on the right page here.
I’d have to say that in my experience there are better mixtures for
this. I happen to use a water-based home-brew recipe that I got out
of Erhard Brephol’s book but that’s just my personal preference.
Personally I use the borax/boric acid/alcohol mixture as a soldering
flux for my work with (standard) sterling silver and in that
application I find the alcohol nice because it evaporates quickly.
That helps me place solder chips, etc if that’s what I happen to be
doing at the time.
Magic flux will solve your problems, not only a firescale preventer
on gold and silver, It will also provide flux altho I touch liquid
flux to my joint in case of repair ect.
Yes, by all means, set your firecoat alight! Even though I’ve only
been using the boric acid/alcohol mix for about 8 - 10 months, I’ve
found it very effective. I keep about 1 1/2" of solution in a small
Ball canning jar on the benchtop. For each piece involved in a
soldering operation, I dunk it in the solution and then burn off the
alcohol using the same lamp I use for wax working - also an alcohol
lamp. If the coat isn’t even enough, I dunk and burn off again. Two
or three dunkings are usually enough to get a nice even coat.
Some folks might shudder at the thought of keeping so much flammable
material on the benchtop, but I find that the canning jar works
well, as I can cover it between uses without having to screw on the
outer ring of the lid. (I also know that I can easily smother the
flame with the lid if I ever set the jar alight.) The alcohol lamp I
extinguish and push to the far corner of the bench, where odds of
setting it on fire are slim.
Cheers,
Jessee Smith (lately returned from chaperoning an Entomology class
field trip in Florida, with a fine belostomatid in hand!)
I don’t ‘dip’! Too messy and therefore can understand the fire
problem. I use a small flat apothecary jar… small mouth with a
stopper and a full artist brush. I just dip the brush, and paint on
the flux at the point of the joint. Give a better control of the
flux and therefore solder flow. Worked for years.