I have heard more colorful language at the soldering bench than in any other location of the studio (of course I have made my own contributions). If you have some experience with soldering but feel like you could be more proficient, this class may be right up your soldering alley. Ask yourself …

• Do you melt or unexpectedly heat texture metal while soldering?
• Does your solder flow where you don’t want it to go?
• Does your solder not flow at all?
• Does your piece of jewelry move around on the brick as you try to solder it?
• Do you spend too much time cleaning up solder-slop?
• Do your solder pallions dance like gypsies when you are trying to heat up the metal?
• Do you have difficulty soldering large pieces?
• Do you find it hard to solder textured pieces?
• Do your previously soldered joints fall apart when you try to solder another joint?

We will cover:

1. Placement of heat, the amount of heat, and the tip to use with various soldering joints
2. Gauging what temperature you can expect solder to flow
3. Trouble-shooting what went wrong when the solder did not flow
4. Strategies for securing a piece of jewelry when soldering
5. How to avoid solder spillage and what to do when it occurs
6. How to limit solder palion movement
7. Strategies for soldering larger pieces
8. Dealing with texture.

Pre-Requisite: Experience making a sweat, butt and T-joint solder joint.

What to bring to class:

• An apron
• Ultra-fine Sharpie
• 3 feet each of hard, medium and easy wire solder
• 20 gauge copper sheet metal, 1-2 pieces of 6x6 inches
• Some smaller pieces of 24 g metal

PLEASE WEAR CLOSE TOED SHOES TO CLASS

Available for purchase in class:

• Hard, medium and easy wire solder
• Copper sheet metal, 20 gauge, 6x6 inches
• Jumbo Maxi Flame Torch (great for use in the home, apartments, etc.)
• Other soldering supplies such as pickle, flux, soldering picks, etc.

Please don’t bring other tools to class. I will have everything you need.

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