A section of the setting of an aquamarine in a pendant was missing so it came to me to repair it.
I made a piece to fit in and filed the ends of the setting straight and chamfered the end of the piece to allow me to build up the join up from the inside out. It is 9ct yellow gold but welded nicely (9ct yellow is very often horrible to weld). I used a flat tool in my drill to put a rut in the piece so the edge of the aqua fitted nicely into it.
I removed the whole section to be repaired from the main pendant to make it easier to work on and tacked the piece into place then built up the 2 joins by welding and holding 18ct yellow wire next to the weld so it was sucked into the weld which builds the metal up. The colour difference between the 9ct and 18ct is not noticeable as they blend. I only used 18ct because it welds really well. Care was taken not to weld too closely to the aqua to avoid damage (with practice you learn how close to a stone you can weld without damaging it).
After cleaning it all up in the acid and scrubbing in soapy water, then filing and buffing, I put a line along the side and a V mark on the top rim to match the rest of the setting. You can see me refitting the section back onto the main body of the pendant and welding the joining ring shut.
The Lampert PUK 3S welder was set to GAP mode on 25% 4ms for welding the setting (I could have used more power but I err on the side of caution). The joining ring was welded on GAP mode on 20% 4ms (the default is 6ms but I find that a shorter welding time works better for 9ct yellow).
Holding the work while welding is difficult while filming because the camera is where my left hand usually is, so I am more clumsy in these videos than I usually am.
5 ноя 2016
