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I Forge Iron

soleil

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Vancouver Island BC
  • Interests
    handcrafting Organic apothecary, silversmithing, wasting time on Instagram and watching mindless television, following trends in magazines and online, poetry

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  1. turbo7, With steel I have no experience soldering. With sterling silver a few years. I keep going back to working with sterling silver to avoid frustration. Alan Evan, Thank you for the tips. Yes I'm heating the entire ring first and moving in a circular motion but it's possible I'm not heating it enough. I'm fluxing where the two pieces meet and laying the piece of solder on top of it and placing this on a charcoal block. I also tried placing the oval ring in a third arm and working that way. My sister give it a try as she is also familiar with sterling silver soldering and got 2 to work kind of but getting it to slightly melt and spreading with tweezers. Maybe the steel senses that I'm frustrated. I'm also constantly watching videos online but have yet to find one with someone soldering steel wire. I've contacted the store I bought it from to see if they can help me out. Thinking I may just make a video of what I'm doing and put it here and on you tube to see if someone can shed light on what I'm doing wrong. My new brainwave is to just create steel wire designs that avoid soldering for now.
  2. I tried the Stay Brite kit and I'm having the same problem. I get the initial melting and then it balls up again and never flows into the joint. For now I'm taking a rest from this as I've spent too much time on it and I'm getting frustrated. Maybe it's my technique working with steel but if I go to silver or non tarnishing brass I have no problems at all. My sister is convinced she can figure it out so I'll let her try it and see what happens. I'm frustrated I bought this Stay Brite kit as I had this feeling it may not work. In the meantime I'm going to brainstorm designs that don't require soldering at all.
  3. Biggundoctor, Thanks for the tip. The solder I was trying to use was soft, medium and hard and the store where I bought it from said it's a high temp solder and they didn't think it would work with Batterns flux I was using and the Oatey paste flux I had. I went and bought the Stay Brite kit which was expensive. They sold 16 oz of flux for the price of the kit but then the only separate solder they sold came in a big bundle of $200. The kit came with a 1/2 oz flux and 1/2 oz solder. Hoping to try it out tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous as I'm hoping it will work. I've gone and filed down the solder that balled up from previous attempts and one of the links broke again so will try to solder that with the new stuff.
  4. You've all be very helpful thank you. I went to my local Home Depot and explained what I was trying to do. The man said I would need to use an acetylene torch with a copper brazing rod which they sold or he recommended using a Mapp/Oxy set up which they sold there but I if I buy a new torch I want something with a finer tip. I know it can be done with a butane torch as the women I bought a similar steel wire from online (hers is a 14 gauge so thicker) told me she is using a butane torch not even as nice as mine with a silver solder paste and it works. So I'm seeing if I can get a silver solder paste here in Canada or buy one from the USA. I did try the 14 gauge and almost got it to work. I can get the Stay Clean flux locally so think I may just buy that (especially if it works for silver too) and see if that works. If not I'll go the paste route or get creative and figure out how to design without soldering the links. Just found out my local supply shop has a Stay clean kit in stock with both solder and flux so I'll buy that and hope it works. Yes at times my wire does get red hot in spots with the silver solder.
  5. turbo7, No I'm not maybe that is another reason it's not working. I'm researching that now. Thanks. Hoping I can do that with my torch as I don't have a soldering iron. Also I don't have tinning solder but I do have the softer coiled version that I can try it with.
  6. Charlotte, Thanks, I can get the stay clean flux locally so maybe I'll just go that route and try the hard solder I have already. Yes I have to apply a fair bit of heat and the flux bubbles up etc. so I may be contaminating the joint as well. I have Sparex solution already in a glass dish so I'll just put the loops in there and use an old toothbrush to really make sure it's clean.
  7. Thomas, It is going to be a necklace eventually so I don't want the loops falling off the chain or if the person wraps it around to make it shorter it won't fall apart. Thanks, I've been having a feeling that the flux is the issue. I have hard solder so I'll try that with a new flux. The Oatey flux I've tried says it's not for stainless steel so I'm thinking that is my problem also even though I'm using carbon steel. Do you think the Stay Clean flux will work? The store that sells it tells me it's: a suitable flux for soldering steel and most other metals. Or I'll go my local Home Depot and see what I can find there.
  8. Smoggy, Thanks I've updated my location. I've been pouring over the internet the last few days trying to figure out how to make this work. I'll go find what I've started and post a photo which may help explain what I'm trying to make. Shown is the tie wire, the loops and the last photo of the medium solder. I'm using a charcoal block to solder. The other solder that I have that is lead free comes in a coil that I snip off. I can also get Stay Clean flux locally but only a 16 oz size which is more then I want. I'm told by the store that it should work for what i want to do but don't want to spend more money on another type if it doesn't work. Also wondering if I should try the paste flux/solder version like this: http://etsy.me/1qpsAfr With the low Canadian dollar I'm trying to avoid buying from the USA where possible and may see if I find something like this in Canada.
  9. Hello, I'm using a Benzomatic butane torch and making jewelry with rebar tie wire which is carbon steel wire according to the website. I've made several oval loops and want to join the two ends together. The ends have been filled down so they meet end to end and I've used steel wool to make sure the ends are clean. I've tried using Batterns flux for silver, gold & Platinum and Oatey flux No. 5. Then for solder I've tried Bernomatic solid wire solder !00% lead free and just the regular silver solder that I have in soft, medium and hard (used the soft and medium). I've tried placing the solder on top of the joint and also in between. I heat and heat and it does look like it goes sort of liquid but then with more heat it balls up instead of flowing into the joint. Do I need a different flux or solder? Is my torch not hot enough? I have no idea if this wire has been annealed either as I own another type I haven't tried yet that is annealed. Also does this wire need to go into a pickling solution after the water? I've been doing that but wondering if it was necessary with this type of wire.
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