 ArtMetalsocial networking for the metal arts |
|
New to working with metals.
Copper Corgi -
Monday, November 22, 2010 - 5:18pm
copper jewelry. copper bezels | Copper soldering Hi, My name is Barbara Tilley and I am new to working with metals. I have played around with chasing and Repousse and also trying to make some jewelry using copper. I've got an acetylene and air soldering torch (not oxygen) and some copper phos to use as solder. I created a bezel and tryed to solder the joint using silver solder (medium flow) and ended up burning a hole through the copper and still not melting the solder. Wow..... I'm thinking that the tweezer that were holding the bezel were acting as a heat sink and stealing some of my heat.....but it got hot enough to blow a hole through the copper. I guess I should have moved the torch more......any other suggestions? The videos that I've watched show someone melting solder with a micro torch using a third hand set up. Wondering why mine went so wrong. Thanks for any insight. Barb  soldering problems
Copper Corgi -
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - 1:18pm
Thanks Crquack, I'll try something else and if it turns sour....I'll get some pics and post again. Barb Tilley  I use air acetylene so I
marilyn -
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - 2:47pm
I use air acetylene so I don't think that was the problem. You have to get the whole piece hot just as with silver if you want the solder to flow. Use paste flux which will stay active longer. Do not put the flame on the solder. It will boil out the zinc and the solder never will melt. Copper oxidized quickly so lightly sand the areas that you are soldering together just before commencing soldering. Your tip might also have been too small and yes, you have to keep that flame moving! marilyn |
|
ArtMetal
Like with many other
Like with many other problems it is difficult to comment without actually seeing what you are doing. With soldering god is in the details.
The best guess is that "you applied the heat in the wrong place" but I suspect that you worked that one out yourself and I am not helping you any.
If you have never done any soldering, before you do it "in anger", do a lot of practice and experimentation so you see how the tools, materials,solder and flux (you do use flux?) behave *in your hands*
FWIW I have found it helpful to put either pictures of my failures (and the occasional success) on a picture-sharing web site such as flickr and then refer to them when I am asking for help on a forum/newsgroup. You would be surprised what people pick up in the photographs. Short videos are also good
crquack