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Jan. 25th, 2009 04:37 pmWhile I am quite impressed with the X-1 nickel white gold alloy from Stuller, the same cannot be said of its matching solder.
I have NEVER had such porosity problems with any other solder, ever. I swear, the stuff turns to foam with the application of heat. Argh!
I've re-soldered the seam on the test Mobius ring at least 5 times now, and each time it looks fine, I start to polish- and see pinholes. This last time I added solder on the inside- usually I prefer to do it on the outside of this style, since it's an easier clean-up- and I'm just hoping I can smooth the outside the wee bit it needs without revealing more holes. I've tried every trick I know for diminishing porosity, too, like cooling VERY slowly indeed.
So frustrating!
I think if this one doesn't work, I'll re-saw the seam (removing the problem solder) and re-solder with the 20k white gold solder from H&S that I liked so much with palladium. The color match may not (or may!) be as good, but it's a lot more pleasant to work with- and I think a faint visible line in some lights is preferable to a series of pinpoint holes along the seam!
Also: Etsy now has a way to work with Google Analytics. I added that yesterday, and thus far it seems to be working OK. For those of you on Etsy- esp. if you also do Google Analytics- it promises to give more and more interesting data than Etsy itself provides. Kudos to Etsy for doing this!
I have NEVER had such porosity problems with any other solder, ever. I swear, the stuff turns to foam with the application of heat. Argh!
I've re-soldered the seam on the test Mobius ring at least 5 times now, and each time it looks fine, I start to polish- and see pinholes. This last time I added solder on the inside- usually I prefer to do it on the outside of this style, since it's an easier clean-up- and I'm just hoping I can smooth the outside the wee bit it needs without revealing more holes. I've tried every trick I know for diminishing porosity, too, like cooling VERY slowly indeed.
So frustrating!
I think if this one doesn't work, I'll re-saw the seam (removing the problem solder) and re-solder with the 20k white gold solder from H&S that I liked so much with palladium. The color match may not (or may!) be as good, but it's a lot more pleasant to work with- and I think a faint visible line in some lights is preferable to a series of pinpoint holes along the seam!
Also: Etsy now has a way to work with Google Analytics. I added that yesterday, and thus far it seems to be working OK. For those of you on Etsy- esp. if you also do Google Analytics- it promises to give more and more interesting data than Etsy itself provides. Kudos to Etsy for doing this!
