How to solder jump rings
April 17, 2009
Got a question from someone on one of the jewelry forums about soldering jump rings. I know there are many methods, but here’s how I do it. If you have pointers, please share!
1. Close jump rings completely. Hold them up to the light, look at them from every direction. The join must be PERFECT!
2. Line up rings on a fire block. I do 25-30+ at a time, depending on size, 5 or so lines of 5-6 rings in a line. When you are placeing them, VERY CAREFULLY ensure you have all the joins at the same position – I like to have the join at the top (12:00) of the ring. Because you have done such a good job in Step 1, you may not be able to easily see those joins, so it helps to have them all in the same place.
3. Flux the join for all rings. (Doing this now ensures the flux dries before you apply the torch.)
4. Cut solder. I use easy level wire solder for jump rings. I don’t use a pick, although I’ve heard that’s even simpler to do.
5. Place solder on each jump ring just outside the ring using a tiny paintbrush that you’ve put some flux on.
6. Turn on the torch (I just use a baby butane one) and keep your flame fairly low.
7. For each ring: Heat the inside of the ring just until the solder flows. I actually sort of heat the fire block and let the heat “bounce” back into the ring. Pull away the heat immediately after the solder flows and move to the next ring. You’ll find that as you move through the lines (I go bottom to top, left to right) you’ll get the additional benefit of the heat on the block from the last ring(s) and it will go fairly quickly.
Occasionally you might want to take a short break and let everything cool down just a little. Depends on how far apart your rings are from each other, and how many you are doing.When I’m done with the entire block of rings, I place them in a container of cool water, then drop into pickle until they are shiny and pretty. Tumble for a bit to harden, and voila.
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