The laser welder

The laser welder arrived late August and was set up by Neil from M2 lasers. http://www.m2lasers.com.au/

Interestingly it requires skills similar to the traditional goldsmiths (mouth operated) blowtorch. That is, good preparation of the work – accurately fitting parts - and a steady hand. I guess trade jewelers will be looking for a tool that will let them re-tip ring settings without removing the stone; fabricate complicated mounts in gold and repair porosity in castings. They wont be disappointed. However it’s not going to be a magic bullet for studio jewelers looking for solutions for the problems associated with traditional sterling sliver, for example firescale and annealing (softening) caused by soldering (braising), and for jewelers working with aluminum. The laser does however work very well on Stainless Steel, Titanium, Gold and Monel. I can also report that my test pieces in Titanium anodized with no difference in the color of the material at the weld. It will be interesting to see if this is also the case with Aluminum.

Traditional sterling silver tends to reflect the laser in the same way that it wont burn a hole through your finger if you accidently zap yourself. Neil’s tip, blackening the metal with a felt permanent marker helps. As traditional sterling silver is a very good conductor of heat it tends to absorb the heat that does make it on to the join. Just how difficult it is to laser weld is reflected in the fact that the supplied filler rod is easy solder, in contrast to the filler rods for other metals that are the pure metal. I was able to weld sterling silver brooch findings onto a stainless brooch, and use stainless filler too. The findings welded on ok but it was difficult to get a neat result. Using the laser still has potential application for tacking parts together prior to soldering that might otherwise require binding wire or multiple soldering to get complicated parts together.

You might have noticed that I have referred to Silver as ‘traditional sterling silver’. This is because alloys of silver using the addition of germanium such as Argentium Sterling Silver look promising for laser welding. For more on Argentium see http://www.argentiumsilver.com/ and http://www.cynthiaeid.com/

The laser welder is an innovative tool that encourages an innovative approach if you want a creative result. When I get hold of some Argentium I will report back.

Firescoff

My studio pals came back from the JAA Fair with samples of Firescoff which promises to be a good alternative to flux for soldering and Prips flux for controlling firescale / firestain on silver.

From the manufacturers website.
Firescoff™ is a revolutionary heat activated ceramic spray coating. Firescoff™ combines a scale preventer, a high performance non-fluorinated flux (for both hard and soft solder) and the convenience of easy removal in warm water, all-in-one.

http://www.nventa.com/firescoff.php