Soldering a Ring Containing a Jewel

I

Fill a small crucible with wet sand and bury the part with the jewel in the sand. Now solder with soft gold solder, holding the crucible in the hand. The stone will remain uninjured.

II

Take tissue paper, tear it into strips about 3 inches in width, and make them into ropes; wet them thoroughly and wrap the stone in them, passing around the stone and through the ring until the center of the latter is slightly more than half filled with paper, closely wound around. Now fix on charcoal, permitting the stone to protrude over the edge of the charcoal, and solder rapidly. The paper will not only protect the stone, but also prevent oxidation of the portion of the ring which is covered.

Cast-iron Soldering

A new process consists in decarbonizing the surfaces of the cast iron to be soldered, the molten hard solder being at the same time brought into contact with the red-hot metallic surfaces. The admission of air, however, should be carefully guarded against. First pickle the surfaces of the pieces to be soldered, as usual, with acid and fasten the two pieces together. The place to be soldered is now covered with a metallic oxygen compound and any one of the customary fluxes and heated until red hot. The preparation best suited for this purpose is a paste made by intimately mingling together cuprous oxide and borax. The latter melts in soldering and protects the pickled surfaces as well as the cuprous oxide from oxidation through the action of the air. During the heating the cuprous oxide imparts its oxygen to the carbon contained in the cast iron and burns it. Metallic copper separates in fine subdivision. Now apply hard solder to the place to be united, which in melting forms an alloy with the eliminated copper, the alloy combining with the decarburized surfaces of the cast iron.

Soldering Block

This name is given to a very useful support for hard soldering and can be readily made. The ingredients are: Charcoal, asbestos, and plaster of Paris. These are powdered in equal parts, made into a thick paste with water, and poured into a suitable mold. Thus a sort of thick plate is obtained. When this mass has dried it is removed from the mold and a very thin cork plate is affixed on one surface by means of thin glue. The mission of this plate is to receive the points of the wire clamps with which the articles to be soldered are attached to the soldering block, the asbestos, not affording sufficient hold for them.

Soldering Paste

The semi-liquid mass termed soldering paste is produced by mixing zinc chloride solution or that of ammonia-zinc chloride with starch paste. For preparing this composition, ordinary potato starch is made with water into a milky liquid, the latter is heated to a boil with constant stirring, and enough of this mass, which becomes gelatinous after cooling, is added to the "above-mentioned solutions as to cause a liquid resembling thin syrup to result. The use of all zinc preparations for soldering presents the drawback that vapors of a strongly acid odor are generated by the heat of the soldering iron, but this evil is offset by the extraordinary convenience afforded when working with these preparations. It is not necessary to subject the places to be soldered to any special cleaning or preparation. All that is required is to coat them with the soldering medium, to apply the solder to the seam, etc., and to wipe the places with a sponge or moistened rag after the solder has cooled. Since the solder adheres readily with the use of these substances, a skillful workman can soon reach such perfection that he has no, or very little, subsequent polishing to do on the soldering seams.

Soft Soldering Paste

Small articles of any metals that would be very delicate to solder with a stick of solder, especially where parts fit into another and only require a little solder to hold them together, can best be joined with a soldering paste. This paste contains the solder and flux combined, and is easily applied to seams, or a little applied be-

fore the parts are put together. The soldering flame will cause the tin in the paste to amalgamate quickly. The paste is made out of starch paste mixed with a solution of chloride of tin to the consistency of syrup.