Question: Soldering wire rope edge on silver buckles

[ken dixon]

I have a couple buckles to make and I have always had trouble with this so I was hoping someone had some helpful advise.

I am using hard silver solder.

When you lay the wire out around the buckle perimeter it has areas that don't lay perfectly flat to the surface. How do you hold the wire down as you solder it? I have clamped things with the grs third hand clamps to solder and had them get to hot and kind of burn a divot into the silver.

I am no soldering expert so any help is appreciated.

Ken

 

[Southtexas]

http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/solder.htm
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/consol.htm
Here are a couple links you might find helpful.
Cliff

 

[cowboy_silversmith]

Howdy, Ken. This is how I approach a project such as this. I have a large 18" X 18" steel screen with a cut out 3" X 3" section. I use straight fiber handles lock tweezers as my clamps. Most buckles I use 5 tweezers spaced evenly apart to clamp. I lay the project over my hole in the screen and begin to heat. Once the flux is to temperature, I concentrate on adding my first bit of solder to a section between two of the tweezers. ( I should mention here that I do not use chips for this process but rather I feed the solder wire into the rope where it meets the base). As the solder follows the heat, I work counter clockwise. As the solder seam approaches the tweezer, I remove it and continue towards the next tweezer. I continue in like fashion until I complete the full circuit. I have never experienced the tweezers leaving any impressions in the sterling twisted wire rope...ever.

 

[ken dixon]

Are these the kind of tweezers you are using? http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Wolf-Tools-Soldering-Tweezers/115074?Pos=2

Ken

 

[cowboy_silversmith]

Yes, Ken. Those are the ones.

 

[maplesm]

I have made some clamps like these http://knewconcepts.com/TitaniumClamps.php. The titanium is not as much of a heat sink.

 

[Southtexas]

Same item, better price. Especially if you need several. Not the same as the knewconcepts. And they do appear to be priced right. anyway, I have purchased these and they are the same as Rio Grande sells.
http://www.amazon.com/TWEEZERS-Lock...1389625591&sr=8-1&keywords=soldering+tweezers

 

[silverchip]

If they are oval or barrel shaped trophy buckles it should be easy enough to make a mandrel out of 1/2" steel. Cut it out and then make it slightly undersized as the rope will stretch anyways . I drill a hole in the side to accommodate the wire rope and wrap it around the mandrel. Cut the wire and line up the joint and hard solder just the joint. The next step is to file a small flat inside the rope and fit it to the mandrel, it should fit loosely.With the wire being open and not filled with solder it will stretch tightly around the blank. Level the wire around the blank, apply your flux and tack it on in several places( I use med silver solder)and in the same heat go around and fill the rest with just enough solder to finish.
TADA -The perfect rope edge!!!!!!!!!

 

[ken dixon]

Thank you everyone for your time in replying, I'm sure the tips will help.

Ken

 

[Jahn Baker]

Ken, just in case you missed it in the other answers, I always heat from the underside of the buckle. There is much less chance of overheating (read burning) your rope border that way.
Good luck!

 

[l. bacon]

One tip I might add is anneal your rope. Twisting wire into a rope work hardens it and makes it quite springy. Heating to red hot softens it so you can shape it to your buckle shape much easier.
Larry

 

[ken dixon]

yes I have annealed it, pickled it, and am waiting on some clamps I ordered. Then let the fun begin.

Ken

 

[Julia.J]

Hey Ken, thought you might find this link useful- I searched youtube for different kinds of jewellery techniques and stumbled upon a guy called Soham Harrison, he has uploaded just about 120 videos of really informative and well made tutorials, including soldering of silver (sweat soldering etc.) http://www.youtube.com/user/1soham1?feature=watch

Take care,
Julia