So this is what we're making, a simple little charm bracelet. Alternating large and small links, 40 links in
all roughly and the reason for the two different sizes is when you're putting
charms on, often times it's difficult to make sure that the chain is lined up
when the links are all the same size, so this was just to make it easier and I
like the look, large and small.
All soldered the sizes that I'm using our three millimetre and
four and a half because I’m using 1.2 wire and the inside diameter of your
small link has to be big enough the two pieces of wire will go through it, so
twice 1.2 2.4, so I’ve got point 6 clear on the inside. So it'll be nice and
flexible. So cut all of your three millimetre jump rings, bring the ends
together so that they're absolutely perfect, as perfect as you can get them.
Solder them separately, because these are small enough that if you
try to soldier them with the two bigger ones in there, you'll end up soldiering
them together, maybe not, it just this will guarantee that you won't solder
them together. So cut connect solder all of your small ones and then we'll
assemble the chain.
A little bit of wax on the blade, I use beeswax just because it's
handy and available you can use bear wax, you can use wintergreen oil just
about anything that's a lubricant. I do it just so that the blade but isn't
sticky, it just makes it cut easier. Then use your parallel jaw pliers and what
you do is push one end past, then bring it back, wiggle it back and forth and
get it as close as you can get it, so you want zero. Gap yeah and by wiggling
it back and forth you can get it so that there is ZERO gap. So put all of these
together but all of the joins together and then we'll assemble it after we
solder all of these.
So just make sure that the metal is touching, otherwise it won't
solder. Okay the joints are all closed I’ve added a little bit of water to my
flux and mixed it up. We're going to use hard solder for this and I'm just
going to put pieces of solder along my charcoal block doesn't have to be
charcoal it can be any kind of soldiering block. So you want a fairly decent
spread of this, so that you don't overheat the ones next to what you're trying
to do. So flex the solder, each piece, it'll help hold it in place and it'll
also make sure that the solder flows.
Then what I do is I pick up the jump ring, locate the join, flux
it as otherwise it's a pain in the bum to try to get it all to stay in one spot
and then I just line up the join with my bit of solder, do a row of them, take
your time I know it can be a bit tedious but it'll all come good. So light your
torch, medium flame, any flame really and I’m using my tweezers because it's
just easier once the solder flows to pick it up and shift it over. You could
use your soldier pick, so do the whole bit, do all of them. Now take your large
jump rings that are still open and assemble your chain. So open them a little
bit more, I haven't quenched these, but they should be cool enough and I just
place them with my tweezers.
On the off chance that they aren't cool enough, can't be bothered
quenching and pickle at this time. Close the join make it as perfect as
possible, make lots of these with the single big jump ring and the two small
jump rings and then we'll assemble all of them. So once you have your stacks of
three, take the big jump ring, put it in the small one, grab another stack of
three, put it in the small one, close the joint as good as humanly possible.
So that's what our chain is going to look like, now it looks like
it's going to take roughly 30 of each of the large and small jump rings.
Assemble the chain completely and then we'll hold the big ones up on a third
hand, joint up and solder it like we've done all of the other ones. Now the
reason for this chain, in case you want to know, is this is for a charm
bracelet and this way I it's very easy for me to make sure that the charms will
hang exactly the same way.
That's it, so assemble your whole chain, soldier it, make a hook
for the end, pickle it and tumble it. Done. I'm just going to continue
assembling the chain and then I'm going to have to call it a night, it is night
it's nine
o'clock at night. You can see
by the moisture on my arm is still quite toasty, I thought it was going to be
cool enough to work, but if I have the fan on you can't hear me, so i'll just
assemble this and will finish it up tomorrow early. Ciao. Morning, it's nine hours later so i've made a hook out of the same size wire 1.2 I just made a
small loop on the end soldered it flattened this end and turned it around into
a hook. Now I put it on an unsold jump ring because it would be really
difficult to solder that while it was assembled on the chain. So now this the
chain is assembled it's just a matter of going to the third hand, holding each
one of these joint up and soldering them.
So you hold you jump ring is far away from the joint as you can,
that way the heat doesn't get sucked into your third hand. I cut about 20
pieces of solder, this by the time I get to 20 it's time for a little break.
The Flux is mixed and nice, Smith's mini torch, neutral flame, solder pick,
heat the jump ring a little before you touch it with your flux brush. Heat the
solder big, pick up your solder, the flame coming up place your solder and it
will flow just like that and I'd like the double third hand because I'm so
shaky that I'm always bracing myself one hand on each of these.
I don't quench it in between, use your tweezers and if you get if
you use tweezers a lot for making chains, get the one that has two little
serrations inside, it makes your life easier.
The ones that are completely smooth, the ones that we normally have
don't really work very well on chains. So heat the jump ring, touch heat the
big solder and continue until the end. Okay we're out of the pickle and what
you want to do is put your magnifiers on and look at every join one by one.
Take your time, I know it's a little bit fiddly but it needs to be done. It's
embarrassing to find one later on, now the charms I put on with the same size
jump ring as the jump ring that I'm putting it on to, I think it looks a little
bit nicer. So when you've seen that all of your joints are soldered, tumble it,
don't publish it on the wheel and you're done. So turn off the gas, put the cap
on your flux, wash out your flux brush, put your tools away and go have a
coffee while it's tumbling.
