A productive weekend...

[glasseye]

rings1
Originally uploaded by Derian le Breton.

Yay rings! Alas one of my solder joints on the bezel + cabochon ring (the one with the moonstone in it) wasn't quite strong enough; the tension in the band and a brief trip in my pocket caused it to pop off. I should be able to repair it though...


Oh! And I got to play with a flex-shaft rotary tool today. So cool! Want!

Comments

[mbartell.livejournal.com]

Fun ain't it?
hard solder and a really small joint will make the best bond. Have they shown you the "old indian trick" of raising the fine silver?

[glasseye.livejournal.com]

I went with medium on the bezel and easy on the bezel-band interface. I don't think I have good enough torch control to use hard there without melting the medium solder in the bezel

Haven't done any raising yet, but I definitely want to! What's the "old indian trick?"

[mbartell.livejournal.com]

As it was explained to me, silver has a lower melting point than the other metals in most silver compositions. Think of it like solder- the stuff that melts faster moves to the heat. To raise the fine silver, after you do your work- like soldering filing etc, right at the pickle stage, you pickle the ring, then dry it and coat it with your oxidization inhibitor- ( I used boric acid) and heat the object just a little past yellow to pink. Just to the point before it melts into a pool. (OK a little before that, but the point is pay attention to what you are doing) then do the pickle again. Repeat until you are satisfied.
You can also do it after you polish the ring in a vibratory or tumble-polisher. Same process but you have to polish it again. Each time you raise the silver, it becomes more clear, white and shiny. It also gets your solder joints to really weld and lock in.

The other really cool trick was how they showed us soldering up a ring. You make the gap as small as you can, and run a piece of sandpaper thru the gap so both sides are parallel. (like cleaning points)
then you snip off a chunk of solder 1/2 the length of the opening. Set the opening of the ring on top of the bit of solder, and start heating it from the top down. Like magic, the solder will wick to the top, the ring will drop and the joint is perfect.