The reason for my soldering problems seems to be the flux I was using. After doing the test, I switched fluxes and have had no problems since.
After doing some research on the web, I was able to find a source for the these F flux. Unfortunately, with shipping, it was way to expensive. I then went to my local rock shop and got five different types of fluxes that they always kept in stock.
I took five pieces of Argentium Sterling® Silver all the same size and placed them on a piece of Argentium Sterling® Silver. A small piece of hard Argentium® Solder was placed by each piece of Argentium Sterling® Silver. I used a different type of flux for each piece of silver. The following is the order, best to worst, of which fluxes did the best (according to my very unscientific test). NOTE: The Ultra Flux® paste is the flux I was using when I had soldering problems.
1. Horizon Tool Co.® Paste Flux ($5.95 for 2 oz.)
2. Cupronil® liquid flux ($4.95 for 4 oz.)
3. Dandix® Paste Flux ($5.50 for 1 oz.)
4. Ultra Flux® Paste ($5.50 for 8 oz.)
5. Batterns® Self-pickling Flux ($7.75 for 16 oz.)
It is surprising what a difference the flux used can make. I know there are lots of other fluxes on the market, some of which, probably work better than the ones I've tried. These are just the ones that are easy for me to get locally. The moral of the story is to keep an open mind when working with Argentium Sterling® Silver. Things that worked alright with regular Sterling Silver, may work differently with AS.
After doing some research on the web, I was able to find a source for the these F flux. Unfortunately, with shipping, it was way to expensive. I then went to my local rock shop and got five different types of fluxes that they always kept in stock.
I took five pieces of Argentium Sterling® Silver all the same size and placed them on a piece of Argentium Sterling® Silver. A small piece of hard Argentium® Solder was placed by each piece of Argentium Sterling® Silver. I used a different type of flux for each piece of silver. The following is the order, best to worst, of which fluxes did the best (according to my very unscientific test). NOTE: The Ultra Flux® paste is the flux I was using when I had soldering problems.
1. Horizon Tool Co.® Paste Flux ($5.95 for 2 oz.)
2. Cupronil® liquid flux ($4.95 for 4 oz.)
3. Dandix® Paste Flux ($5.50 for 1 oz.)
4. Ultra Flux® Paste ($5.50 for 8 oz.)
5. Batterns® Self-pickling Flux ($7.75 for 16 oz.)
It is surprising what a difference the flux used can make. I know there are lots of other fluxes on the market, some of which, probably work better than the ones I've tried. These are just the ones that are easy for me to get locally. The moral of the story is to keep an open mind when working with Argentium Sterling® Silver. Things that worked alright with regular Sterling Silver, may work differently with AS.
4 comments:
Great post Marty! I've always wanted to do this but never quite seemed to get around to it. Well done!
Hi Marty,
Great to read your blog and flux experiment. I've also found that Cupronil works well when soldering Argentium.
Peter Johns mentioned that My-T-Flux works well too. I haven't tried it myself - just thought I'd mention it in case you felt like another experiment...!
Thanks for posting this. I have been looking for information on flux solder, brazing, and aluminum bonding. So this has been very helpful!
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