soldering

The term "solder" refers to a metal alloy (a mixture of metals) which is heated in order to join one piece of metal to another piece of metal.

Solder comes in different types of alloys such as silver solder and gold solder, and normally, you'd match the solder to the metal. For example, if you were soldering with silver, you'd use silver solder so that you wouldn't see the solder after you finished soldering. It would just blend right into the other metal and sort of become invisible.

Therefore, the practice of "soldering" is using solder to join two pieces of metal. You heat the solder with a torch to the correct temperature (which varies depending on the type of metal), and the solder melts and flows between the two pieces of metal, thus bonding them together.

Due to the alloys in the solder, the melting point of the solder will have a lower melting point than the metal you are soldering. This allows the solder to melt sooner than the metal, which is obviously critical to the soldering process.

While learning to soldering is not really all that more difficult than wrapping a bead with wire, understanding what the metal is doing can be just as important to understanding the step by step process of learning how to solder.

Step-By-Step Soldering

When soldering silver, or any metal for that matter, there are a few variables depending on what is being soldered, but, for the most part, you follow the same series of steps each time you solder metal. Below is the basic step-by-step process:

• First, you need to set up a clear safe area to solder. This will normally require a large ceramic tile, a fire brick, and an overhead lamp. The fire brick is put on top of the tile and will safely absorb the heat from the torch flame.
• Once you have an area set, next you should make sure that whatever you are soldering together fits well. This often requires careful filing to ensure there is a tight fit.
• Next, it's important that whatever is being soldering is clean and free from grease and oils that has been transmitted to the metal from your hands. So, each piece that is to be soldered should be put into a pickle for a few minutes.
• Once the pieces to solder are cleaned and arranged on the brick, it's time to cut your solder. Just as the metal should be clean, so should the solder. Though you don't need to pickle it, you want to make sure you don't handle it a lot. Either use wire cutters or very sharp scissors to cut tiny pieces of solder. Set them aside on your tile for later.
• Now it's time to flux. The flux is applied to the area to be soldered using a thin paint brush. Then the solder is placed on the metal.
• Tweezers work well for placing the tiny pieces of solder onto the metal. When placing solder on the metal, it should be positioned between the areas that will best join the metal.
• Once the metal had the soldered place, it's time to start up your torch. First, all the metal should be heated so that the temperature for soldering is reached at the same time. The solder will follow your heat, so try not to point the flame right at the solder. Instead, you want the flame to draw the solder through the joint being connected. Continue to keep the flame on until you will see the solder run, then remove the flame immediately.
• Using tweezers or pliers, pick up the hot metal and drop into a jar of water. If you need to solder the piece again, you'll need to repeat these steps starting with step number 3.

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