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anyone here repair jewelry with jewelry solder?


cableguy

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I have a small problem with my watch that I was thinking might be fixed with jewelry silver solder..... hopefully we can have someone who had done/knows about it to chime in.

I want to just kinda fill this slight imperfection in the back of my watch near the case tube with silver jewelers solder, (the same stuff they use to fix broken prongs on rings, links on necklaces etc.... think it will work?

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Silver Bearing Solder-It (SP-7) is probably the most versatile of our solder pastes. It will solder most ferrous and non-ferrous metals including copper, brass, bronze nickel, platinum, (some) chrome, monel, galvanized, (some)stainless, gold, silver, coated steel, cast iron, black steel, steel.

Silver Solder-It is extremely conductive because of its silver content. It produces extremely strong joints (5 to 10 times the strength of 60/40 solder) because it contains NO LEAD.

Because of its low flow temperature, you can solder small jobs with the heat from a match or lighter. It is particularly useful for jewelry, electrical connections, board work, miniature connectors, battery pack connections.

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*please note this is a macro pic, so it looks much larger then it is *compare it to the size of the crown*. (but it still bothers me either way)

post-6575-1192834675_thumb.jpg

post-6575-1192834860_thumb.jpg

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I have used alot of silver solder over the years, but only for electronics work. I doubt it would be strong enough to permanently fill & repair such a large space, especially since the surrounding material is stainless steel. It would take quite a high temperature to get it to flow onto steel (you will need to dismantle the entire case before attempting anything involving high temps). I think your best bet would be to either buy another watch or see if you could have some new metal welded into the hole and then file/sand/buff to match the surrounding steel. Or you could probably fill it quite easily with gray colored epoxy, followed by filing/sanding/buffing (most auto parts stores stock this).

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It's my understanding that soldering stainless steel requires the use of acid flux (to dissolve the surface oxides, which give ss its "stainless" capabilities), and high heat (typically applied with a torch flame). Like fredd333, I doubt that you'll have success with this repair...but you've got nothing to lose trying.

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@ Freddy - I'm not trying to Attach anything, just fill the hole. i would hope it would be strong enough to hold itself in there. this gray epoxy you are talking about is that JB Weld? I also thought about that, but I figured that solder would look more metal like. thoughts?

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Guest carlsbadrolex

Ive used several different jewelers solders. Ive never had any luck with what you show. Regardless of the claims Ive never had it stick to another metal. As soon as it cools, it breaks loose.

I can not think of anything jewelery related that would work to fill that defect.

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It could possibly be welded, but given the location, size, type of steel and the requirement to preform a nearly impossible re-tap.... I'd have to say too much trouble for a possible solution at best.

JB Weld IS a good idea, if you want it to have a chance at being somewhat water resistant. Just don't get over zealous with the dremel again when grinding it down.

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@ Freddy - I'm not trying to Attach anything, just fill the hole. i would hope it would be strong enough to hold itself in there. this gray epoxy you are talking about is that JB Weld? I also thought about that, but I figured that solder would look more metal like. thoughts?

I know you are trying to fill a small hole, which is why I recommended what I recommended.

P4.jpg

Here is the link

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@ freddy - that looks good. hmmm too bad its 50.00 a lb and i'd only need .0000000000000001 of an oz lol

my other concern is what color it would cure at...because JB weld cures at this dark gray color. and if this stuff does the same then I'd just use JB weld.

hoping to find something that will blend in as close a possible.

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