As an old Jeweller who's done LOTS of silver soldering, firstly make sure there's NO flux on areas you DON'T want the solder to run. There's also a "Yellow Ochre" powder that you mix into a paste & apply to areas as a "mask" to stop solder flowing, like your "chalk" idea. A variation on the Ochre was to just use the "Red Rouge" polishing compound, knock a bit off, crush it up & mix it with Metho or water to create your paste.

@occasionalmachinist

Ай бұрын

That might be something to try too - rather than using the chalk dry, making up a paste with it. I think the problem I had was the coverage was not thick enough.

Graphite will prevent silver solder from alloying with other metals. Run a ring of 6B pencil granite around your joint and it should contain the solder. Liquid paper correcting fluid works too.

@occasionalmachinist

Ай бұрын

Thanks

From somewhere in my distant memory you can use liquid paper as a mask for silver soldering, put a good coat where you don’t want the solder. Nice project. Cheers

@occasionalmachinist

Ай бұрын

I can't recall the last time I've seen liquid paper - most places I work at these days use correction tape. I'll have to look around.

a nice job!

@occasionalmachinist

Ай бұрын

thanks

Very timely, will be out in the shed in a couple of weeks finishing a long paused job, liquid paper, or more old school yellow Ochre for stopping the Solder spread. What Solder did you use Cigweld 965 would have been perfect for that.

@occasionalmachinist

Ай бұрын

I think it may have been. The solder was something I bought from BOC years and years ago.

I would use a tighter fit between the copper pipe and the brass fitting when silver soldering. It will wick down a surprisingly small gap, but shouldn't then return down the inside of the tube. Also, use minimal flux just where you want the solder to stick.

@occasionalmachinist

Ай бұрын

Thanks. I've never been sure how much of a gap is required, so normally allow 0.1 to 0.2mm. I noticed that @roncovell made some drum hoops, soldered with the two surfaces in contact. It must have worked but I would not have though it would wick completely. For flux I put a drop into the gap, but when heating it bubbled and probably flowed over the surface. More things to practice/ learn...

) this symbol at the start is to much in the link. Click right click > copy link> paste into browser> delete that ) > hit enter > read!

@occasionalmachinist

Ай бұрын

I've added some spaces to the link - hopefully that will fix the issue.

@fearlyenrage

Ай бұрын

very nice it works! =)

Just remove the trailing parenthesis in the link.