HI all. this is my first post,I work mainly with silver, but hope to
incorporate other metals into pieces,sterling and 18k gold and I
have found that I love the look of copper jewellery, especially when
it’s combined with sterling silver and brass!
I am thinking of buying a PUK 2, which I have found second hand at a
reasonable price… I think! I have searched the archives and read the
postings regarding the PUK, but I really would like some advice on
what the puk 2 is good for and what are its limitations?( in
reasonably simple language please… don’t know that I am quite up to
speed with all of your experienced terminology! blush)
I’ve had a PUK2 for a couple of years now and find it extremely
useful. I use it for tacking pieces together (especially platinum)
prior to soldering, and for repairing things that cannot withstand
heat.
A good example is when I was asked to fit a safety chain to a silver
bracelet that contained a large piece of amber. The customer had
already contacted some other jewellers and had been told that it was
impossible to attach the required lugs without damaging the amber. I
did it pretty easily with my PUK2; the following links show the
complete bracelet and a close-up of the lugs.
Its so quick and easy to solder charms onto charm bracelets, with no
clean-up required afterwards; similarly for jump rings on chains. It
took me a couple of years to make up my mind to buy one, but my only
regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. It doesn’t replace my water
torch, but makes a very useful (indispensable?) partner for it.
I was able to re-attach the swivels on a pair of gold plated brass
cufflinks without harming the gold plating, and I’ve even used it to
repair a stainless steel food strainer.
I don’t have a PUK 2, but I have had a PUK 3 Pro for a year and a
half. I can tell you about that one. I work mostly in gold and
platinum, with occasional silver repairs. It’s great for tacking
heads, prongs, or other parts in place that might move during
soldering. It’s wonderful for welding jump rings on charm bracelets -
no worrying about keeping a loaded bracelet out of the way of the
torch. It’s great for repairing broken ear posts on earrings with
heat sensitive stones without removing them. I’ve found the welds to
be more brittle than soldering, so I drill or bur a depression for
the ear post, weld, then build up around the base a bit to reinforce.
Tongues on clasps can be welded without annealing the metal, so that
it holds its temper. Pits in castings can easily be filled in.
I haven’t found the PUK to be good for sizing rings or welding heavy
pieces together securely. It’s hard to get a lot of depth, and it
takes much longer than just soldering. Working on prongs or bezels
right next to stones other than diamond or corundum requires masking
them to prevent tiny flying beads of metal from chipping them.
It takes a while to get good on it because you have to experiment to
find what works for each situation. That said, I find that I use it
almost every day.
