I have learned over time that there are three ways to do the same thing. The right way, everyone else’s way, and my way. And not a single one is the best way all the time.
I am lately using wire solder for many jobs. And it is not always the best choice all the time but I find I use it because it is handy. I use Easy and Medium. To keep the short lengths of solder wire from being confused on the bench Easy gets a tight loop turned in one end and Medium gets a triangle.
Not surprisingly I use boric acid and alcohol as a barrier flux as well. But I also use borax and water as a dip. ( heat the work until it is a straw color, lightly golden, dip the metal in the barrier and set aside to dry) then I usually will solder with boric acid and alcohol. But I may use Battern’s as well.
I think soldering is a “what works best for you” thing. If it comes out well, consistently, you can officially call it technique.
Don…I use little bends at the end of the solder wire stock. The more bends, the harder the solder. I also roll the solder out to make it thinner and less likely to go all over the place once it melts. I like to use short snippets of round solder wire when the joint is recessed. The round shape allows it to make equal contact on both sides of the joint. Again, borax and alcohol dip, burn it off, flux the joint with your choice of flux. I use a paste flux…Rob
I’m not trying to derail my own thread, but I am curious whether you have used this formula that Julie posted on another thread:
Pripp’s or Frip’s flux (depending on whom you ask. ed.)
50 grams dry Cascade (the green box)
120 grams boric acid
80 grams Borax (“20 mule team” laundry soap)
(Be sure to keep this ratio
Michael –
Have a look at this thread: Prips flux and you will find the formula posted by Peter Rowe back in 2000.
Looking at the MSDS on Cascade powder it seems to have phosphates but also plenty of other stuff??? I’d be leary of using it.
Real TSP is basically non-existent for the consumer. What’s available is phosphate free. I’ve made Prips with the fake stuff and it mostly works but I’ve not compared it to Prips made with the “real” stuff.
Why not just buy some Smart Flux from Pepe Tools?
I’ve used it. It works great.
I reckon we all do things differently. Sometimes its something someone taught you to do. Personally, I hate chip solder. You can stick a round piece of solder in a join and mostly will stay if you wick off the excess flux. Used chips for years … see no advantage. Holding the torch in one hand and feeding solder the other … ummm no. I solder copper pipes that way. I use chips of argentium sometimes on a join when fusing. You are are embarrasing yourself name dropping. You have any idea who lurks here …lol.
There are very few things that we do for which there is only one right way. If you find your way, then keep doing it until you find a better way. I like not having to rely on a commercial product to do what I do if I can avoid it. I can find handy flux in lots of places and boric acid and alcohol is just a trip to the drugstore…Rob
In my experience, the hardest part about using Prips/ Pripps flux is in the spraying application.
i have learned, when testing spray bottles, to fill with water and spray a paper towel…observe the spray pattern…many sprayers will spray a halo…a ring of spray, with nothing in the middle…like some shower heads…this will just create overspray without coating the little pieve you are soldering.
i have found success using an empty Bactine antiseptic spray bottle…perhaps because it is designed to deliver the product…versus a spray bottle being sold as the product…the trigger spray bottles i have purchased in the beauty department always fail after a few uses…same with the small pump sprayers sold in the travel department…
i have tried the mouth blown atomizer used in painting, but i do not seem to have the coordination to master it…
Namedropping? Hardly. I’m always ready to give credit and pay my respect to those who have inspired me or taught me something. I am not even close to being the best: they are, I’m not. And I have a pretty good idea in general about who lurks here by looking around me; the cumulative skill and knowledge here is staggering.
If I have offended, then I apologize. I can say that I learned much about English and how to write it from the former editor in chief of National Lampoon magazine, the late, great P.J. O’Rourke. Although I never met him, he taught me a lot. I mention some of the master silversmiths who have taught me, whether I have ever met them or not. The Indian Jewelry world is in many respects a small, closed world where, sooner or later, each path will cross many others, as mine did over the course of twenty years.
Humbled is not nearly the word for it. I don’t remember ever seeing finer work. His designs are brilliant, and, from what I can see, they are executed flawlessly. I’m reluctant to call any work perfect besides that of the Almighty, but Mr. Miller’s work certainly comes close. Thank you for posting it.
Michael. A public dumb comment requires a public apology. Please accept my apology for being a butt. I’m old, grumpy and anti-social, but that is no excuse for being a jerk.
Ford Hallam just humbles me. I am probably more of a metalsmith than an artist and I am just awestruck with what he can do. I love to make alloys and cast ingots and make stock … but he just takes it to such a different level in his work.
All is well. Mr. Hallam’s work is spectacular. I am a long-time admirer of Japanese art in general, and their metalwork in particular. I have a small bonsai nursery on my apartment balcony, which I have been happily toiling over for several years. Also, I collect Japanese kitchen knives, and have been acquiring the knowledge over several years to sharpen them; I have been getting some damaged and neglected knives from a dealer in Tokyo and have been refinishing them. I’ve been studying Japanese katanas for quite some time as well, and I know that there is nothing commercially available that even resembles Mr. Hallam’s.
For what it’s worth, I’m old, grumpy, and anti-social as well, so we ought to hit it off just dandy.
Thanks, Neil.
I stand corrected. I have some of that very stuff and as I dug out the box and read the label it does say “contains Trisodium Phosphate.”
Now I’m wondering where I got the idea that it was unavailable.
– alonzo