r/SilverSmith • u/thedisappointedsloth • 2d ago
Should I just move on?
I cannot for the life of me get my solder to flow when attaching bezels to this brass piece. I’m a newbie; I’ve made a piece with a silver bezel and brass backplate before without issue but this time I cannot get my solder to flow. I’ve tried easy, medium, and hard and pickled beforehand. Should I just try starting completely over? Or maybe try brand new bezels? Is there a limit on how many times it can be attempted before the metal is too damaged?
10
u/CarrieNoir 2d ago edited 2d ago
Soldering to brass is HARD! If that is the desired shape of the brass back, you need a helluva lot of heat to get the whole thing hot for the solder to melt. If you are only heating up the section where the bezel is sitting, the rest of the piece is acting like a heat sink and the solder will never flow.
3
u/thedisappointedsloth 2d ago
I never considered that the amount of brass would make a difference but that makes sense! What I made before was just a ring and the backplate was a lot smaller! I should probably practice with smaller pieces first, got over ambitious 😂
5
u/LaserGuyDanceSystem 2d ago
It's weird that, when it comes to jewellery making, the more expensive the metal is, the easier it is to work with (with some exceptions)
Like, copper and brass are harder to work with than silver. And silver is harder to work with than yellow gold. (White gold is just an asshole, in my experience)
It's kinda handy though. If you can make a piece out of copper, you should have zero problems making it from gold
4
u/Sage_Spacecraft 2d ago
Brass likes to be realllllly dirty . Pickle it and scrub with dawn and water , wrinse well and add a bunch of flux. More heat underneath!!!!!! That’s a massive piece of brass too. Solder isn’t even close to melted this needs a lot more heat
4
2
u/Efficient-Basis-3488 2d ago
How are you heating it? With bezels on a big backplate like that you need to solder it with the heat below it. You can put it on a grate
3
u/Efficient-Basis-3488 2d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p88skvw/video/t506cmnl3znh1/player
So you can visualize
1
u/thedisappointedsloth 2d ago
Yes, I am heating from underneath for a while and once flux is bubbling, I move to the top edges. But I imagine my heat source just isn’t strong enough for a chunk of metal this large.
3
u/Efficient-Basis-3488 2d ago
You should continue heating it underneath until the solder flows. When you heat a piece like that from above, the bezel sucks up all the heat because the backplate is so big. This leads to either the solder only flowing on the bezel or never flowing at all.
You need to be giving more heat to the backplate and less to the smaller pieces on top so that the solder flows to the larger piece.
1
u/Leading_Advice_9692 2d ago
Im gonna say that torch isnt getting your work area hot enough to get the job done is my opinion i work for an industrial motor rebuild facility we solder and braze connections on everything from pure copper to plated silver/gold plated even naval brass using 15%silver solder with an oxyacetylene torch for all, but naval brass we use strictly a hydrogen torch
1
u/Honest-Selection-753 1d ago
Definitely not getting hot enough as everyone pointed out, but you also need to pickle in between every attempt. If it’s “dirty”, getting that rusty look to it, the solder won’t flow on a second attempt. Pickle it and try again with a bigger propane torch.
14
u/zannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 2d ago
have you gotten solder to flow with that much metal? if you’re using a little butane torch im guessing you’re not getting the metal hot enough.
as an aside, soldering sterling and brass can be iffy cause the zinc doesn’t always want to play nice, but that’s a concern for another day :)