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 I need help! Soldering
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| Author | Topic: I need help! Soldering |
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newbee Posts: 2 |
posted 05-02-2006 12:47 AM
  
I am a college student taking a jewelry design class and right now I am trying to make a belt buckle. It is not like the thick cowboy types it is much thinner. I am having problems getting the solder to flow on the 2 pieces that will hold the D shaped hinge. I have pickled it and put the flux on; all it does is turn into a ball. So it is very frustrating. I can try and get pictures if it is needed. I am open to any suggestions! IP: Logged |
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Kimo Posts: 1627 |
posted 05-02-2006 10:03 AM
1 - Find a very well ventilated area. You do not want to be breathing in any fumes. They are not good for you especially with some types of solder that can contain a bit of cadmium. 2 - Forget about soft solder or easy flow solder, use medium or hard silver solder. The reason is soft or easy-flow solders will not give you as strong of a joining as medium or hard solder will. 3 - Make sure the parts fit closely together and you can not see air between the parts to be soldered. Parts that do not fit well before soldering will likely break apart afterwards. Time taken to make the parts fit well at this point pays off in a professional looking result that will last the life of the object you are making. 4 - Just before you solder, clean the areas to be joined by rubbing them with some very fine sandpaper or emory paper to make them pure metal with no residue of anything, including fingerprints or pickling or dust or whatever. 5 - Clean the part of your solder you will use with your sandpaper or emory paper. Over time the surface of your solder collects a coating of oxidation and junk that you do not want in your joint. 6 - Put silver flux on the parts and areas to be joined, be sure to use fresh flux and not some stuff that has been sitting on the shelf for the past 20 years. 7 - Set the parts up for soldering and use a very hot torch to quickly heat up the parts that will be joined. If you don't use a very hot torch that will heat the pieces to be joined quickly, and then apply the solder quickly you will burn off the flux before you get the solder on which will give you a poor joint at best. If you don't have a good hot torch (acetylene), you will not get professional results. 8 - Don't heat the solder - heat the metal parts to be joined. If you aim your torch onto the solder it can burn off the parts of the alloy that have lower melting temperatures changing the overall alloy. This is not good. 9 - Once the metal parts to be joined are heated, touch the solder to them and let the heat of the metal parts melt the solder and draw it into the joint by capillary action. Solder is supposed to be drawn in via capillary action - not drip down onto the joint by gravity. 10 - Be sure to touch the solder to both sides of the joint - if it only touches one side it can bead up and you don't get a joining. 11 - If you are going to do another joint, use your pickle to clean remove most of the residues and then start over at # 1. 12 - Practice, practice, practice until you get the feel of it. Quality soldering is not a skill that can be learned in 5 minutes. Before you try doing anything on your buckle again, get some little pieces of scrap silver and make 25 joints. If the last 5 are not all uniformly clean, professional and do not break when you yank on them, keep doing them until you are getting consistently good results. [This message has been edited by Kimo (edited 05-03-2006).] IP: Logged |
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newbee Posts: 2 |
posted 05-02-2006 11:51 AM
Thank you so much for the info Kimo! I will go work on it. IP: Logged |
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outwest Posts: 390 |
posted 05-02-2006 11:56 PM
Now you're going to have to figure out how to post a picture so we can all admire your work. And, Kimo, I really enjoyed reading how you go about doing it! Thanks from me, too. [This message has been edited by outwest (edited 05-02-2006).] IP: Logged |
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agleopar Posts: 850 |
posted 05-03-2006 09:03 AM
Kimo hit all the important parts and the only thing I felt to emphasize is that you need to heat the whole belt buckle to a point where the flux turns brown before you zero in on the join and flow the solder. The reason is that silver is so conductive that it will suck the heat away from the join if you don't get it all hot first and the solder will just ball up because it is melting but not fusing with the buckle. Having said that heat slowly but firmly with low light and if you see the buckle getting dull red back off, the solder should flow and if it gets hotter you might melt parts of the buckle. If you still have trouble start again, pickle, fresh flux, heat slowly the whole buckle when the flux gets glassy zero in on the join (carefully) and it should go, good luck, show us the end result! IP: Logged |
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FWG Posts: 845 |
posted 05-06-2006 10:29 AM
And I would emphasize the need for not only a good torch, but a large one. Many school jewelry studios have relatively smaller torches that are fine for jewelry projects, but can't produce a large enough flame to reliably heat a large piece. I speak from experience, years ago, also working on a belt buckle. I did eventually manage to do it, using the largest torch head in the shop with another student adding a second torch to help keep both the overall heat and the more intense heat on the solder point. Another problem that often comes up for students working on this kind of item is the need to heat two pieces of dramatically different size. I occasionally saw someone melt down the smaller piece while trying to keep the whole assembly at temperature (nope, never did that one myself -- I learned the lesson from watching others). IP: Logged |
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