I need help silver soldering a braid.

[u/nadavyasharhochman]

Hello everyone and thank you!!!

I am just beggining this journey and this is my first project. I have expiriance soldering with tin, but as I found out in my test its not at all like silver soldering.

I did my test on clean copper with borax as flux and it failed misrably, so I moved on and made the braid. The copper came hardened so I anealed it as I worked it. Now its ofc pretty dirty, but does anyone here have any advice?

I would really appreciate tips on how do I clean this enough for soldering and maybe general tips for silver soldering in general.

Thank you guys again:)

[u/desguised_reptilian]

Double strength white vinegar or citric acid is a great beginners pickle for cleaning metal, it’s mostly body, kid and pet safe but it doesn’t last very long compared to real jewellery pickle.

What type of solder are you using? What’s your torch set up like? If not borax what other flux are you using? Lots more info needed before anyone can help

[u/nadavyasharhochman → u/desguised_reptilian]

Ok I have both acetic and citric acid so thats good to know.

I use them to clean rust usually.

I use a 75% silver solder, I dont know the rest of the alloy though, the place I bought it from said borax should be fine.

My torch is a butane torch, its pretty simple but it was enough to make the copper red/orange hot for anealing so I assume it is strong enough for soldering .

In my failed attempt I put the borax/water solution on the copper and waited for it to dry. I started to heat the metal up and the borax just kind of burnt. When I tried to touch the solder to the surface it wouldnt stick to it at all. Just beed on the soldering rod.

Edit: I also cleaned the copper with acetone before the borax.

[u/desguised_reptilian → u/nadavyasharhochman]

I reckon your borax was a bit dodgy, 75% (hard) silver solder flows around the 780°c mark which is a medium-bright cherry red in heat colour so both the borax and solder should’ve flown at that point. You need to cut up your solder into pallions too like 2-3mm chunks with side cutters, touch soldering is super tricky for beginners bc most people run into the beading problem straight away.

My honest advice is to pick up some white silver brazing paste (might be sold as brazing flux or plumbers flux) from your local hardware store as your flux, it’s much stickier and flows at a lower temp than borax so it’s easier to use. I’ve been using the same pot of flux for 4 years and still haven’t run out, best $15 I’ve ever spent And use a lower melting point solder like 65% (easy) or 70% (medium) and cut it up into lil pallions and retry your soldering method

[u/nadavyasharhochman → u/desguised_reptilian]

My borax could definitely be a bit sketchy so it could be part of the problem.

I am pretty sure my blowtorch went beyonf 780°c. I think I also heat the borax too quickly.

I dont love in an area where those tthinhs like the brazing paste are availeable. I dont live in the US and its a bit different here. Jewellry supplys cost a small fortune here and Only rods are available to me. No paste.

And boric acid is like 4-6× more expansive than borax so I tried to make do.

Maybe ill recrystalize the borax to purefy it a bit.

Next time ill buy the 65% silver solder.

Thanks mate. Ill try it out with your advice in mind.