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
I use My T flux from Rio,’which I think is similar or same as Pripps? I usually just heat my piece and spray the flux, then heat to dry the flux then just go on to heat and solder. Depending on the situation, I use pallions cut from rolled out wire solder either placed at my joint, or pick solder with the same pallions. Bigger pieces I use wire solder, contacting this joint at just the right moment (with fingers crossed). I’m trying to teach myself to use wire solder and just contact the hot joint in a wider variety of situations and making progress, but it’s a challenge.
My question to you is.
Using the MyT flux as my only flux seems to work 98% of the time, but would I be Solder Superwoman if I also used paste flux in addition! Is Handy flux the same as the paste you refer to?
I recently switched to that same flux and I am loving it. Sometimes I use a small Artist brush to paint it just where I want it if I have boric acid applied as a barrier flux.
I always use a barrier flux like alcohol and boric acid, prips and My T Flux on the whole piece or that which will be exposed to high heat and then boundary flux like, borax and water paste, Handi Flux and others on the joint before I solder. I use a lot of flux. A quick soak in water or a boil in pickle will get rid of the glassy residue. My problem is that I often get a bracelet done and ready to polish only to find that I didn’t anneal first and have to go back and anneal. I always apply alcohol and boric acid before I anneal to reduce the chance of fire scale. I need my heavy bracelets to be annealed, otherwise they are very hard to bend and shape…Rob
Hear Hear Rob! I whole heartedly concur! Thank you for reminding us of James Miller. He was a consummate craftsperson and exquisite designer as well as being a really lovely helpful person. We lost a towering talent when he died - Vale!
I just realised I was chiming in on a 2023 thread!
Sorry about that. That being said James Miller’s work is something to marvel at any time
Cheers from OZ