It takes a Dad sometimes..... to say the right things and give you the Aaha moment! I could bot find what was missing , why my solder was not sticking to my copper wire...... and just like magic! you said it and you are the only one who said it! Thank You Divine Father for showing up for us...... my project is now completed , after 1 1/2years of working in it!
This is probably the most helpful video on jewelry soldering I’ve seen. And I’ve have watched countless videos trying to find the right one. Thank you.
This was the most helpful video on soldering jump rings I found. After watching other videos I went into my shop and had total fails. After this one...SUCCESS! Thank you so much!
By the way... it wasn’t gravity that pulled the first solder attempt to the left & away from the joint. It was the third hand pulling heat away from the right side & the solder flowing to the hotter side of the jump ring. Next time heat up the third hand a bit first to provide more balanced distribution of the heat & the solder will stay more centered. Solder is way more influenced by heat than it is by gravity. In fact, solder will easily flow uphill toward the heat & always away from the cold, even with gravity pulling against the flow. Good job overall...
Thank you for this! This was the comment I was looking for, my solder keeps beading up on the wrong side of my jump ring joints and I couldn't tell why...but knowing that it's the third hand on the other side makes perfect sense!
Great camera work. I bet it was really fiddly to get to focus on such small items, but I appreciate it - it makes this video much easier to understand than other ones.
*unless you only have a torch on hand & no electric soldering iron… 😉. That’s the whole reason I found these videos today bc it occurred to me that while I don’t have many 🧰 tools, I have a lot of jewelry & an excellent torch. I found that sure enough, most metals will melt with a torch alone. I even saw one video which this video helped me to understand why in the first, nothing else was required… only heat plus the metal itself with no flux, no solder etc. Understanding that it will work if it hasn’t been flashed, that’s important as I always thought I was unable to use solder as it never stuck to things back when I had a soldering iron. Granted, i read no instructions & simply expected melted solder to magically work. One thing that no video has explained is what the block is beneath the heat/metal that apparently doesn’t transfer heat. Is that a whetting stone? Like what I’ve always wanted for sharpening knives? If you don’t have that stone, what options are there as far as areas to do work on/over that won’t catch fire basically?!
You mentioned cleaning off the metal that's been oxidized before trying again, how do you do that? I've tried soldering jump rings I have before but they wouldn't work
What is the block thing you used? Also what did you use to hold the jump ring? I am just learning how to solder for my jewlery/keychain business, so any tips could help!
I just asked the same question. Still, is it by chance a whetting stone? It sure looks like one… that would give me one more reason to finally get a whetting stone. I asked for one as a small gift when I was in my 20’s when my dad asked if I wanted anything in particular. He ended up getting me this big, handled knife sharpener where a “V” is what you pull the blade through to sharpen it. Okay yeah that’s nice but 20+y later daddy, I still want that $4 whetting stone. 😂 As another daddy with a daughter… that happens like every holiday. He asks what I might want for Christmas & I say like exactly what I’d like & he either gets too much or changes it to what HE’D like… Like one year I said well you know I really loved the Time/Life 4 volume set of Symptoms & Illnesses, Vitamins & minerals & two other volumes I can’t recall now. They were paperback & I wore them out in high school (prob a little bit of a hypochondriac back the yet I found all of it fascinating). That year he got me like a physician’s desk reference. That was really a thoughtful & nice gift back before you just looked everything up on the Internet. He did the same one year with meteorology bc I’d always studied the weather/had a fascination with it but didn’t want to pursue it in college. So he bought a really nice, big reference-type book on meteorology which was very thoughtful. That he did w/out asking. He often has the idea that he wants to get me like say a North Face or LL Bean coat… or a Levi’s flannel shirt, for instance. He’d ask every time like if I were to get some article of clothing, what colors do I like? I’d *always* say black. Black or red. For years he’d completely ignore that & say yeah but you wouldn’t want black for a coat… bad color… lol. Ok so he’d get navy or some such yet everything in my wardrobe goes with black - boots, shoes, belts. Etc. on the other hand, that’s all changed now bc I have a white cat so ANYTHING black is not really even wearable. The point I’m trying to make is that sometimes you need to know WHY someone might want something in particular. Like if they tell you exactly when you ask, then that’s exactly what they usually want. But those books were extremely thoughtful. I asked for a tool set once… & for some reason I ended up getting a big fish-cleaning boxed set. That definitely wasn’t what I had in mind. I must have been taking about enjoying fishing right after he asked what I might like for Christmas. 😅
Okay Charcoal Soldering block v whetting stone. What is a whetting stone? Is that pumice? Or is it not a natural formation? And I assume it’s not made of charcoal… I’d really like to know what else may exist that won’t transfer heat. This video uses some items like I was searching for what I actually have already aka the torch rather than a soldering iron. Well in the same way, what else would work as a surface, if anything?
“Whetstones can be made from natural or synthetic materials, such as novaculite, Arkansas stone, or ceramic, and come in various grits or textures to suit different sharpening needs.”
Ok. I just read up on the Charcoal soldering block… my idea of heat transfer is like neither here nor there as charcoal is used for other reasons. Charcoal reflects the heat back up to the jewelry. It also absorbs oxygen, etc all assisting in the soldering. So me asking about a heat safe surface is something altogether different. Nonetheless… the best answer I saw is perhaps ceramic.
Wait are you asking HOW the 2nd was done? It’s shown step-by-step… in a way it makes it look like the fastest, easiest way but I think that’s bc the full steps for each part were explained on the first example.
I think he said something about just using a small file which really can be sandpaper or a nail file even esp one of the metal nail files. They come in handy for a lot of minor work aside from using them on nails.
Really can’t believe that people are listening to this. Plumber solder at best is only 4%silver and will be a bad repair job. Use actual solder designed for jewelry. This should be listed as comedy
