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      This is Episode #2 in our How to Make Soldered Jewelry video series. In this video we show how to sweat solder two flat pieces of metal. We also show you how to anneal metal.  >> Scroll down for the list of tools.

       

      hey there I'm Lisa Niven Kelly for

      Beaducation.com and welcome to the

      first project episode in our

      introduction to soldering series now if

      you haven't watched the very first

      episode that's where we talk about tools

      and materials and we really get into it

      so make sure you check that out before

      this one but in this one we're going to

      talk about Sweat soldering and that is

      when you take two flat pieces of metal

      and solder them together in that first

      episode we talked about the golden rules

      of soldering and one major golden rule

      is to make sure that your metals are

      totally touching the solder will only

      connect where it's touching and because

      of that in this episode we also talked

      about annealing and annealing is when

      your metals really hard hit it with the

      torch like I'm going to show you and it

      relaxes it now the reason I put those

      two together is because in this class

      when we go to put the two pieces

      together one is a little bit warped so

      you have to flatten it and it was pretty

      hard and I couldn't get it to flatten so

      I kneeled the metal and then it easily

      flattened so I'm gonna talk about Sweatt

      soldering we're gonna talk about a

      kneeling but the first thing we're gonna

      do is just flow solder we're not gonna

      solder anything together we're just

      going to put some solder on some copper

      and see what it feels like and what it

      looks like to just get it up to

      temperature and let it flow

      [Music]

      we're gonna practice just flowing the

      solder and throughout these lessons

      we're going to be using a spray on flex

      but I thought for fun I'd show you the

      Handy flux which comes on more like a

      paste mine is kind of old so it's really

      thick but you can water it down and

      apply it with a brush or with this for

      this I'm just going to put it on a small

      amount of area and then I'm going to

      apply replace my little payin Boop and

      then we're just going to melt that and

      see what it looks like just flowing

      so again this is something I want you to

      do over and over again just to get a

      feel for how hot it needs to be my flame

      is about two inches above the piece and

      I'm just hitting the outside and there

      is the flux it's going to turn a little

      glassy just hit the outside of the metal

      because the heat will travel in it's

      gonna flow pretty soon

      starting to go and see that

      yes

      you can see how quickly it flows and

      this will all depend on you know the how

      how you have your flame how thick your

      metal is and this is really interesting

      because you can see the bright copper

      color that's where the flux was because

      it protected it from the copper oxides

      coming up and it kept it nice copper

      color and the outside got the the fire

      scale which is very easy to clean up in

      the pickle here's some fun pieces that

      have been sweat soldered this is just a

      basic sterling stamped piece that we

      soldered a little brass heart on so cute

      this is a copper piece we have the

      initials and then the middle s there is

      brass it's been soldered on and actually

      was a charm we cut the top off of it and

      filed it off just to use it as a

      singular s it's kind of cute and on this

      one we used the sterling silver circle

      in the back and then copper heart

      sterling k so you could solder the

      copper heart on first clean it start all

      over again - then put the K on in two

      steps with two different flow Sauter's

      but on this one I actually used medium

      solder laid it between the copper heart

      and the sterling doc and then laid the

      cave right on top of it with medium

      solder everything stayed really well and

      I just soldered it all at once it worked

      out great okay so here's my plan on this

      beautiful little stamped circle I am up

      to solder this heart right in the middle

      it's a crazy reflection there but they

      need to be flat so that they can get a

      good join you can see they don't touch

      because this guy is pretty warped it not

      happens when you stamp especially around

      the outside so all you need to do is

      flatten it sometimes you need to anneal

      it to get the metal to really flatten

      but I'm hoping that I can just use my

      plastic mallet or a rawhide mallet and

      Hammer it too flat so you need to make

      sure that your bench box bench block is

      super clean and smooth with no nicks in

      it mine is very clean it's just got a

      little rust but that doesn't matter so I

      could just flip it down and hit with the

      plastic mallet because this is clean but

      if you're worried about your bench block

      grab like a thin piece of fabric or I

      just have some leather here

      and you can put it on that to make sure

      you don't scratch up your piece now

      you're gonna have an easier time

      flattening it by facing the edges down

      this way then rather rather than having

      them point up like that that makes sense

      so I'm just going to flip it down and

      hit it a bunch of times now because this

      is sterling it's a pretty hard metal I'm

      not really able to get it very flat I

      could keep trying but I actually want to

      show you annealing so we don't leave it

      at that if I was able to get it flat and

      get this flat we could move straight on

      to soldering but instead let me teach

      you how to kneel this metal to soften it

      so that then when I try to flatten it

      again it'll easily easily flatten to

      anneal this metal these are the tools

      and all the goodies that you need from

      your soldering list that we talked about

      in the first lesson and the only reason

      we've got our Cooper nail here which is

      a flux is not because we need it to help

      our solder flow so we're not soldering

      just yet but by spraying it on this

      piece before we Emil it's going to help

      protect it from the fire scale so really

      what it means is it's going to be less

      cleaning after we anneal this piece on

      this one I am going to use the flux that

      we talked about to keep it from getting

      too much fire scale but I'm not gonna do

      it on this one just so you can see the

      difference cool

      so I'm gonna turn on my flame I've got

      my goggles on maybe I'm not go

      and I want my flame let me come in here

      you can't see really well but I've got

      it a little pullback I don't have it

      full max you can tell by the sound or

      I'll show you the button as well I don't

      have it turned all the way up there I

      have it pulled back a little bit so it's

      not like a crazy big flame I want a

      neutral flame and to add the Cooper nail

      I'm just going to get a little bit warm

      maybe I'll do the other side as well

      see how it's already changing colors

      pulling those copper oxides up to the

      surface

      so I'm going to come in with my flame

      and again because of the contrast you

      can't really see it but see how it's

      changing colors here and it's starting

      again

      all this kind of pinky salmony color you

      don't want to come into your clothes

      just come around around you want to be

      very deliberate and very patient and

      maybe we're done there now I'm gonna do

      this guy and I'm kind of covering it

      with the torch

      so long

      I'm gonna get it pretty warm but not red

      mmm that looks good

      okay gonna quench it and do the same at

      this guy I'm gonna street him to the

      edge so I can grab it out of frame sorry

      and you'll hear the crunch sound yeah

      alright so let me take them out and show

      you so now I'm gonna put it in the

      pickle to clean it up I or hit it with a

      bunch of penny bright and then we'll

      come back and flatten it again I just

      grabbed these out of the pickle pot and

      they will come out looking like this

      kind of matte kind of white chalky

      that's cuz it's all clean the copper

      oxides are gone the silvers come to the

      surface and I'm not gonna polish it I'm

      gonna leave it just like that

      now flatten it and then I can solder it

      cuz it's all clean so don't polish it

      just leave it exactly like this let's

      see the heart is already pretty flat I

      probably don't need to flatten it but

      I'm gonna leave the design face up and

      just give it a couple whacks just to

      make sure all right now with this guy

      instead of flipping it over I'm just

      gonna hit it from the front because it's

      super annealed so it's very soft

      everybody should go flat without any

      issue there we go

      before I go ahead and solder this I

      wanted to show you that this is what

      you're looking for a nice and flat flat

      flat against each other it's just like

      we talked about when we introduced you

      to sheet solder we're going to cut these

      little pieces of grass probably got a

      little longer and then we're gonna cut

      our own little pal Ian's here and then

      drop them into your little jar to keep

      them

      so we've got them right there in our

      little jar let's pull them out as we

      need them here's how I'm gonna do this

      I'm gonna first come in with my torch

      and lightly heat this these two pieces

      are 24 gauge they're pretty thin light

      the heat spray with Cooper nil and get

      it all nice and coated and I'm going to

      turn my torch off and then place

      everything in place then turn it back on

      and solder

      trying to get that all nice and coated

      I'm actually just gonna use one palying

      because I cut this guy kind of big and

      it's kind of perfect

      so I'm now gonna take my heart put it

      upside down try to get it nice and

      centered right where I want it I just

      make sure that it's right exactly where

      I want it and the cool thing is here the

      PAL unit has it kind of lifted you can't

      really see if there's a gap over here

      but when it's otters the heart will drop

      like and that is what I'm now that it is

      all soldered

      this is where patience comes in slowly

      going to heat the outside

      I'm not going to concentrate my flame

      right in the middle I'm just going to

      let the heat flow in from the outside

      very patient my flex will protect it

      I'm a little hotter and it's probably

      gonna drop pretty soon I can see it

      coming up to red and you see that drop

      right there I'm just gonna give it a

      little bit of a kiss around the outside

      okay I realize you couldn't see the drop

      because the purchase of the lace so it

      set up just another sample here about my

      torch on anything sliced and I'm healing

      around the edge

      and he will travel in from the edge and

      not trying to write on the top

      gettin up to temperature and see a drop

      right there

      other sites to go

      the edge that's what we're looking for

      so we just pulled it out of the pickle

      pot and there's that kind of white

      frosty finish that we talked about at

      this point I'm going to go ahead and

      oxidize it and then polish it up to

      leave the black in the grooves to show

      the detail the stamping I'm going to do

      that instead of polishing it then

      oxidize some polishing again so you can

      oxidize with your oxidation of choice

      whether you moxa dyes with Sharpie pen

      or enamel paint or liver sulfur or

      hydrochloric acid whichever you prefer

      I'm gonna go ahead off-camera and

      oxidize polish punch a hole and bring it

      on back and you're gonna see this beauty

      I am also gonna file that because it's

      making me crazy a little bump right

      there look at this not too scary you

      guys can do this it's all nice and

      soldered I have oxidized and polished it

      so my hands are all dirty and hung it

      from my favorite popcorn chain so it's

      your turn what do you say let's go fire

      at those torches and make yourself a

      nice sweat soldered pendant

      [Music]