Soldering plated parts - advice for a beginner
I am making charm bracelets with various real and man-made stones,
pearls, polymer clay beads, etc. which are put on silver plated
headpins and attached to an also silver plated chain via a silver
plated jump ring. The "charms" are not particularly heavy, just small
beads and stones.
The problem that I discovered upon wearing the very first such
bracelet, was that the jump rings are unable to hold the charms
securely. I lost several, and once the whole bracelet flew off when it
was detached at the clasp because of a small gap in the jump ring. The
jump rings are slightly warped at the cut edges, which keeps them from
meeting tightly enough to hold together.
It seems the obvious solution is to solder the parts, so I ordered a
Smith Little Torch which seems to be highly recommended, and I plan to
use it with propane, as that is easily available to me. I see a lot of
solder recommendations and techniques are readily available for
soldering sterling, but I was wondering if anyone has advice on
soldering silver plated parts. Does anyone have a particular
flux/solder recommendation? I'm obviously very new to soldering, and
I'm not sure how to proceed.
I think an initial step would be, if at all possible, to move up a
bit in quality, and use sterling findings rather than silver plated.
They'll look nicer, be sturdier, will be able to be soldered if that's
what you want, and will most likely be better made.
Silver plate will wear off, sometimes sooner rather than later,
depending on the thickness of the plating. When you pickle it, you're
just helping that process along, since every time you remove a bit of
silver, you're more likely to expose the base metal underneath. I'm
not sure how soldering it would work either, since you will really be
soldering whatever that base metal is - which will act quite
differently than the silver will. In addition, if your jump rings
don't line up properly, soldering won't even work - unlike soldering in
electronics or plumbing, soldering in silver and gold does not fill
gaps.
As for soldering or pickling your stones, that will depend on the
stone. Some can take the heat, and some can't; some can take the mild
acid, and some can't. You'll need to do some research on the stones
you're using.
I'll also mention (not to discourage you, but to warn you) that
soldering jump rings is HARD. They're tiny, hard to hold, hard to get
lined up right with the solder, and they MELT more often than not.
Probably not the best thing to be practicing soldering techniques on.
This does not address your questions about the actual soldering
techniques/tools/etc, but if you are still interested in doing it this
way, I'm sure others will reply with more specifics.
I don't know anything about soldering silver plate but I think you will have
a big problem if you solder near your beads. If they are plastic they will
melt. Glass is prone to cracking from uneven heat stress. Metal charms
might be OK. Sounds like you need better quality jump rings and possibly a
heavier gauge wire.