Tacking Solder in Place

 

A couple of Saturdays each month, I work at a jewelry store doing repair work. For a recent repair, I had to rebuild a gold bezel on a worn out, cabochon gold ring. The original ring was cast. It was too complicated and expensive to rebuild the whole setting, so I added new bezel material just to the top. I fabricated new gold bezel and tacked it into perfect alignment with the laser welder. 

The next step was gold soldering the bezel onto the ring. Because the bezel was thin and the main ring was thick, I decided to solder it bezel side down atop a charcoal block so that the block would act as a heat sink and keep the bezel from melting. As a way to keep the solder from sliding down onto the charcoal block, I tacked all of the solder into place using a laser welder. I was able to securely fasten all 6-8 pieces of solder into perfect position and solder the entire bezel on in one heating operation.

You can do a similar thing of tack welding solder into perfect position with a pulse arc welder using wire solder.

 

Stay Connected