How would you solder this?

[PhillipSchmidt]

Don''t worry camellia,

I thought I would pose a question, as this is a job that needs though!

Question for the bench workers here...

I have a predominately cast base. (The front legs are soldered but with hard solder, that won''t move)
The metal is palladium (silver copper), gold alloy. It takes quite well.
The sub-frame will be bent accordingly with the shape and sit perfectly flush. I will create a flatter surface on the sub-frame base.
The sub-frame is soldered with medium y/g solder. It also takes well. It was drawn from a large block. It is too yellow to be gold/silver/copper, but a good alloy.

You can see a lot could go wrong as the member might move! The structure could be compromised and I would be back at the start again, through polishing again and rebuilding.

I have decided to use easy white/medium for the body and start there (it will need unfixable filling). That seems the safest idea. I don''t plan to run the solder across all membranes, unless it goes easier then expected, but it may not, with this high temp’ alloy. The exposed wing areas – top and sides, are the issue to me as the piece will be pegged and I am mindful of loosing the polish off the wings, or otherwise creating drag lines while polishing around the new solder.

All this happens so fast.

Do you have any advice on keeping the sub-frame flush? I am not too concerned about the yellow colour leaching as this palladium alloy is not prone to solder spread (but very prone to leeching out y/g colour).

The main complication as I see it, isn''t loosing the frame, as the w/g medium solder melts at a lower temp'' anyway, but the fact I need to preserve the underlying wings polish. I have tested my borax, thus far, throughout making this ring. It keeps a decent/ok shine. I tested a matt finish for the wings, but that was too easy and by no means better. I want to go one-up from Tiffany, you know...

I have NO room for any solder overrun, especially if I use yellow gold. It may not be obvious to the eye but it is in a photo...

Any advice would be gratefully accepted.

It is late here, I will check if I have a reply tomorrow – your time, and let you know how it goes tomorrow - my time.

Cheers,

Phillip