Bronze Buy Jewelry Man Metal Pendant
Q.I've used a TIG to weld steel & aluminum and wonder if anyone's ever tried it with precious metals. Here's a URL of a random TIG...Google has more: http://www.weldingdesign.com/323/WorkZones/Weldingequipmen/Article/Fa... Any suggestions/advice for me???
A.At one point a number of years ago, the discussion came up regarding Steven Kretchmer's tension settings, and Steven himself chimed in . he pointed out that his metals, especially the specialized platinum alloy he uses, involve heat treatment to harden them (somewhat unusual treatment for precious metals, especially with platinum, for which he had to develop new specialized alloys). He stated then that one of the drawbacks for those attempting to cheaply copy his work without fully understanding it, was the need, on those occasions when one might need to size one of his rings, to maintain the metalurgical integrety and hardness of the ring in order to keep it's function as a compression spring throughout the shank of the ring. He stated then, that the only method he'd found to adequately allow this was heliarc welding (another. older, name for TIG, especially when helium, not the more common argon, is used as the shield gas). He didn't elaborate on the method more than that. Now, I'd expect he's likely using a laser, though that's just a wild guess based on my own experience and opinion of laser welding. Arc welding on precious metals, with the right equipment, would be characterized by the ease of preventing oxides or gas absorption, and the speed of welding. Not very delicate for any sort of carefully fit joints unless you've got one of the costly micro TIG setups. You'd be doing considerable clean up. And of course, if you don't need the specific characteristics of an arc weld, one can easily enough fuse/weld most jewelry metals with just a decent oxygen/fuel gas torch. No real need for the hotter and perhaps harder to control TIG torch in many cases. But if a gas torch isn't hot enough, TIG certainly would offer an option, especially if you've already got it available
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