Soldering PMC Cufflink Fittings

[jools02]

Can someone please please help me!!!!?!!

I really don't have a clue with this. I have all the tools and am using solder paste. Could someone please give me a step by step guide on how to do it.

What I've been doing is:

-Putting a bit of paste on the bottom of the cufflink fitting.
-Using a 3rd hand, lining it up and joining it to the top of the cufflink (PMC part)
-Heating the whole lot up with a blow torch (cufflink fitting and PMC part) until the cufflink bit glows red, then concentrate the heat on the join and quite literally waiting to see when the solder melts.

It's ended up disastrous every time! Sometimes the solder will melt and then when I quench it it all falls apart.

Am I doing it right? Do I need to concentrate the heat in just one place or is it right to heat up the whole thing?

Is there an easier way?

Thanks in advance!

[Kernowcraft]

oh dear....

You will need to use a bit more solder with pmc than you normally would as pmc is slightly more porous. Also make sure boths sides fit together well, as solder won't fill a gap. You are doing the right thing in heating up both parts, so perhaps it is just that you didn't use quite enough solder...?

If you get totally fed up with it you could use devcon 5 minute epoxy, which is a very strong glue and sets very quickly.

Good luck - hope you manage to make it work

Hannah

[jools02]

Thank you so much for replying.

I don't want to overheat the bit where the spring is on the cufflink. The way I have been taught is to join the two pieces together using a 3rd arm, then concentrate the heat over the WHOLE piece using a circular motion until it glows red, then conentrate on the join until the solder melts. The spring tends to weaken like this. Would it be better if I put the solder on the bottom of the cufflink fitting, melt the solder with the torch a bit, then heat up the pmc part, then join them up whilst keeping the heat concentrated for a bit more on the join part.

Thanks!

[jools02]

Can anyone please help?

[Carl Martin]

Ok......never used PMC or solder paste I only ever use normal sterling silver and pallions of solder but here is what I suggest, Get your PMC piece and put your solder paste onto the area where the cufflink it to be attached, have your cufflink ready in a pair of reverse sprung loaded tweezers warm your PMC piece up to nearly soldering temparature as you approach the right temperature for your pieces to be soldered take the cufflink piece held in the tweezers and place into the molten solder remove heat.

If you wanted to you could pre solder the cufflink piece prior to doing this, e.g blob of solder paste on the cufflink piece melt solder onto same, then heat PMC piece as above and as solder melts join the 2 together.

Very simple and quick method and no worries of over heating the cufflink workings.

Hope that helps.

[jools02]

warm your PMC piece up to nearly soldering temparature

This is another query I have... how do I know when its the correct temperature?

Thanks so much for your advice.

[Carl Martin]

Jules,
To be honest with PMC I have no idea, with sterling silver or gold you can see by the changing colours of the metals, I do not know how PMC reacts to heat having never worked with it.

If it acts the same as sterling silver the metal will go a salmon pink colour at the annealing stage then almost a bright cherry red at the point of getting to soldering temperature, after that it all goes into a molten blob, you then know you have gone a bit to far!!!. Of course if you are using pallions of solder instead of paste the solder will "ball" (looking like a small ball of mercury) heating the piece will then bring it all up to temp and the solder will flow shortly afterwards. Using pallions of solder you also need to use an flux of course which i believe solder paste has it already "built" in.

No idea where you are located but if you are near me come by and i'll be happy to show you, much easier than explaining it.

[mizgeorge]

I use pmc only very occasionally as I prefer sterling, but I do know that it helps to burnish the area on the pmc that's going to be soldered pretty hard to reduce the porosity at that point.

[Suzyq]

Hi there...
I solder cufflink fittings onto PMC reguarly... I personally use borax and hard solder and I also use a 3rd arm.

I have a borax dish and cone and a strip of hard solder..

dip your broax cone in water and grind into the dish...then
get a paintbrush and pop a little of the borax onto the area you want to join the cufflink.

Then line up your PMC and your cufflink fitting to where you need to solder it and hold the cufflink part in place with the 3rd arm..

Once all in place, cut a couple of little pieces of solder aprox 1mm sq onto each end of the base of the cufflink.

Then get you torch ans slowly start heating, being careful not to blow away your solder, as the borax bubbles up and you must make sure your solder is touching both the cufflink base and pmc.

Direct you heat only to the bottom part of the cufflink where it touches the pmc, and avoid the bit where the spring is.. make sure you heat the whole of your pmc piece so that the solder will melt.

It will go red and glow and then the solder should melt, make sure you move the flame and get the slder to flow all round the cufflink fitting as some of my early ones fell off..

Hope this helps
suzy

[Suzyq]

Oh and one more thing I forgot to mention, I file the base of my cuffling fitting first...
Suzy

[QueenJewels]

Hi,

I've had the same problems!

If you look at my profile and the threads I've started you'll see one called 'Help please - soldering disaster' the reply from Murano Silver has a link to her blog with a step by step guide.

It's really tricky and I haven't exactly mastered it yet, in fact I've been putting off having another go! I think the trick is to gradually heat the fine silver first, I found it takes longer to heat than the sterling cufflink, and remove the heat as soon as the solder flows.

Also you can buy the cufflink body and arms separately from Cooksons which is a good alternative to the pre-assembled ones because you don't have to worry about damaging the spring.

Good luck and let me know how you get on!

[Kernowcraft]

Really good advice from Murano Silver - here is a link: http://pmctips.blogspot.com/2009/08/...lver-cuff.html

Also what sort of cufflink style are you using? If you are using one which is just the spring mechanism and arm, you might find it easier to use one which has a flat pad to solder onto as there is a larger area of contact like these: http://www.kernowcraft.com/products/...ngs/cufflinks/

Personally I would recomend using an easy solder rather than hard, then you don't need to heat the cufflink finding too much which could affect the spring. The general consenus from the girls here at Kernowcraft is that they much prefer using the solder paste as it is easier to use, but don't heat the solder itself until you have got the metal pieces hot, as this can dry it out.

Hope your having more success now!

Hannah