Jewelry chain soldering - last minute Christmas present.

middle.road

middle.road

Granite Stoopid...
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Got in over my head I think. Need some pointers. Got a feeling it my be outside my skills set.
The plan was to use some serpentine chain from a mangled necklace, wrap it around a shark's tooth and wahla - Christmas present for the wife.
I thought that the tooth I scored was going to be bigger. -oh well.
And of course I wanted to have it done two weeks ago, then reality got in the way of that plan.

I have it wrapped on the tooth and it looks OK, but now I'm not sure how to proceed.
I've got a Berzomatic (2200) butane torch, some Easy Flow (I hope) silver solder, but I'm thinking I'm going to mess up here when I put on the flux and heat.
Not sure how the tooth will react and not sure about the spring clamp acting as a heatsink.
I tried de-soldering the chains from the 'clasps' with some copper wick underneath but that thought failed completely. Went wet but didn't go into the wicks.
Staring at it on the table I was even thinking maybe JB Weld. :grin:
Thanks.

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That's going to be challenging. The chain will need to be pickled and re-polished after soldering. The tooth will not like that. I would be afraid the torch will damage the tooth, or certainly discolor it. Can you drill a small hole in the tooth and put a ring through it?
Robert
 
rwm said:
That's going to be challenging. The chain will need to be pickled and re-polished after soldering. The tooth will not like that. I would be afraid the torch will damage the tooth, or certainly discolor it. Can you drill a small hole in the tooth and put a ring through it?
Robert
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Yep, yep. Had it done up nice until I went and used TarnX for cleanup on it instead of pickling...
Tooth is OK except the top portion discolored.
Tried some of the silver solder paste that I had on hand but couldn't get it to 'stick'. Might be too old?
Put aluminum 'shims' under it to solder it.
Getting the chain mount on it was tedious. Salvaged that from the necklace above.
Definitely won't be taking up jewelry work any time soon.
May try another one - perhaps I'll give drilling a hole in it a try.
I realized something while I was wrapping it up - guess what I forgot to purchase? a chain..... :bang head:

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That's the way we all learn new things. Can't tell you how many times projects didn't turn out the way I expected or that I have had to redo something. I like the way it turned out.
 
I am happy to hear that you got it together. I think you would have probably been better off with a oxy / Acetylene mini tourch... Very intense small flame.

My very last class in college was an unfulfilled art class (bs computer science) so I took "Metal Working" which ended up being jewlery making. The very small sharp hot pin point flame of a mini torch made intricate soldering jobs very quick and easy. I have never used a butane torch but I suspect it was not hot enough.
 
kd4gij said:
I would use something like this. very low heat.

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View attachment 308580
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I would not use that on jewelry, it would likely turn the wearers skin colors. This is pretty much all tin. These "silver bearing" solders are not silver solder, they contain less than 1% silver and a small amount of copper.
 
I have soldered a lot of jewelry and eyeglass with that with no problems. It is made for that.
 
kd4gij said:
It is made for that.
Click to expand...
No, it is not. Tin solders can eat into silver and make it brittle. You will never see a quality jeweler use a tin based solder, only silver solder. If it is a silver plated casting, yes, a low temp tin solder is used, but never on solid sterling.
 
The Bernz worked pretty well. Saw them used in several videos I watched and figured why not.
I started off de-soldering the ends of the messed up necklace and that went well, made it soft pretty quickly.
My Oxy/Acetylene tanks are out in the storage trailer and the head on it is for HVAC work and not small enough I believe.
Also I only use the torch outside, not comfortable enough to use it inside my shop area.

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