Monday 25 September 2017

Large and small link charm bracelet


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.

Video Credit - Soham Harrison


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