Hello all,
I am trying to make up some conchos by soldering sterling to cold steel disks. I am having trouble keeping the overlay from floating once the flux and solder start to liquify and am wondering what ya'll use to clamp overlays down. I have tried to hold things in place with small locking plyers but the plyers draw off too much of my torch's heat.

Jim- I'm assuming you are using silver solder ?

I use a pair of bent nose tweezers, and when the silver starts to "float"- I simply touch down on the peice to hold it from moving while the solder flows. Using the bent nose tweezers allows me to put one side on the silver and touch down or "anchor" the other side to the metal (or my soldering stand depending on situation) to keep everything still. I have my peice marked so that it goes exactly where I want it. When putting more than one peice on I always do one peice then the other,then the other....- too hard to control more than one floating around at a time and makes a real mess if they stick down before you want them. Keep the end of your tweezers solder free so you don't get unwanted solder on your overlays.


Hopefully this doesn't post twice- I tried before but don't think it worked-computer blip!

Howdy Folks,

I use medical clamps (towel clamps) to hold my silver down. That leaves me with a semi free hand if I need to flow solder under the silver. I get the clamps from a company on Ebay. Let me know if you want the name of the company.

D.C.

_________________
The best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse.

RBrooks

Welcome to the forum , always good to see new people posting, please keep it up its pretty quiet around here I think everybody is working on stuff for Elko.

_________________
Norm Harris, Jr.
"The outside of a Horse is good for the inside of a Man"

Thanks for the quick replies.
I have put in an order for some locking tweezers from Rio Grande that will hopefully help hold things together. I am not the best solderer in the county so I need all the help I can get. I have been using medium solder and tinning the back of the overlay. I plan to try some easy solder as soon as as the Rio Grande order comes in.
Thanks again for the advice.

I meant to ask before and forgot... Is there a rule of thumb for the amound of silver solder to use? For example; Do you guys usually cut a solder chip(s) that are roughly 25% the size of the overlay? 50% the size? etc.
Thanks

Hey Jim B

A little solder can go a long ways. If things are floating around a lot maybe your using to much.

_________________
Norm Harris, Jr.
"The outside of a Horse is good for the inside of a Man"

Sorry-I didn't say hello to you all- I did in my first attempt at posting and didn't want to look too stupid with a big long double post.

I figured it was time to throw in my 2 bits, as I as well have noticed things a little slow on the forum and have enjoyed reading the posts.

Jim- I use easy flo 45 for all my overlays (need to careful and have good ventilation as I think it still has cadmium in it) I tin the backs using either very small peices of wire solder cut up (1/32" or less) or feed it on for the bigger overlays. If they were peices in sheet form, the would be less than 10% of the overlay. It does seem to take a little more when soldering overlays to steel than to silver. You can always add extra if you need, but removing excess....I'm sure we all know how much fun that is.

Thanks for your input everyone. The main problem was that I was definately using too much solder. I have been able to successfully solder the silver on with not much floating around now that I am not gobbing up the overlay with a lot of solder. While tinning, I was trying to cover the whole underside of the overlay with solder. Now that I am using a lot less everything is staying put better and the results are a lot cleaner.

Tinning vs. not tinning is still working better for me. I wish I could skip this step and get the same results without it. Maybe with some more practise...
Thanks again for the great advise.

Jim,
Is the overlay sawed out scroll type? If so, are you tinning before, or after you saw it out?

Aflaaak,

Is this important to tin before cutting? I have been cutting out, sanding off sharp edges and then tinning.

Thanks,

D.C.

_________________
The best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse.

I have always cut out, then tinned. I think it would be tough to get a thin enough layer of solder on the back of your sheet (to get the solder in the right place) and depending on your overlay you would be simply wasting alot of solder having it on the back of material that ends up in the scrap bin.
I have tried "pre tinned" gold stock (I can't remember where I bought it-might have been Rio Grande) for lettering, but they put such a thin layer of solder on it, that for hand soldering usually had to add more solder anyways, so was no benefit labour wise and cost more, for the odd time it worked wasn't worth it. I think it is designed for production type soldering jobs (in a furnace).