Im working on a simple snake chain, and was going so well w argentium but realized my jump rings were too small, so i scratched it and started over with sterling silver. Im not having the same effect at all. The sterling jump rings dont want to solder together at all. They are closed, ends touching, but they either overheat or dont close. Should i be using .999 for a snake necklace anyway? Some say yes online, some say it doesnt matter.
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Hi,
curious… you fusing? or using solder…?…
julie
Solder
What kind of torch are you using?
Hi,
my thoughts are…
cleanliness:
is the joint clean? solder clean?
flux:
is the solder fluxed
heat control:
keep moving around and round, in and out, focus on side opposite the seam
tip of blue is the hottest part…
julie
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I’ve found the easiest way to solder that style of link and with that many of them is to lay a bunch of them out flat on a soldering block with little piece of solder underneath each jump ring joint. Use just a tiny bit of flux. Then heat from above to draw the solder into the joint.
I can’t remember what kind of torch that you have? A little torch? If so, use medium small tip, like a #4, maybe a #3. I’d also use a brand new or close to new solderite block (the white ones) or maybe a new charcoal block. Whatever solder block you use, it needs to be smooth without divets otherwise the solder may not touch the link.
You also have to make completely sure that you have a tight joint on each jump ring. If the joint is separated, then you’ll have problems and it probably won’t solder.
I’m not sure what problem that you’re having exactly, but these jump rings are very easy to melt, so you have to look very closely for the tiniest hint of red hot. If you see any essence of red hot, pull the torch away very fast before you melt the jump ring.
The great thing with this style of chain is that you have to solder a zillion jump rings, so you’re going to do a lot of practicing. Once you get it down, you’ll never forget how to do it.
Personally, I’d use fine silver or argentium and fuse the links with this style chain, but soldering is fine. Everything that I just described is the basically the same with fusing, except that now the metal will get a little red hot before it fuses and you won’t use solder or flux.
You’re going to figure it out! You just need to keep practicing.
Jeff
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If you’re willing to post photos, I’d love to see what you’re working on. I don’t know much about chains
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My smiths
I started w argentium and things went perfect, so im going to go back to that. I didnt think about my block needing to be smooth! Thats likely whats happening.
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