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Post by radio on Mar 21, 2017 17:03:10 GMT -5
A lady brought me a 14 karat gold ring her Sister bought for her while on vacation in the Virgin Islands. It did not fit, so she sent it back to the "jeweler" to be sized up. She received it back at last and it still did not fit, so she brought it to me for adding a half size. It was marked 14 karat, but I'm always skeptical of jewelry bought in tourist destinations, so told her I would do it, but made no guarantee as the materials were an unknown and my quote was only an estimate. I cut the 3 rings and sized the solitaire first with no issues, so expected no surprises on the double bands. WRONG! While soldering in the piece on one side, just the indirect heat from the torch totally melted a section of the adjoining band!!!! I have never encountered anything like this and could only surmise he actually soldered in a piece of gold on the section I worked on first, then used a section of just solder on the second shank that blew out on me. There is no other explanation I can think of for an entire section to completely melt under indirect heat! I can tell you one thing for certain, such things sure cause a person to clench the butt muscles and utter a few choice words in surprise!!!
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Mar 21, 2017 17:16:16 GMT -5
Whoa! Definitely an Oh Sheet moment!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Mar 21, 2017 18:26:01 GMT -5
Yikes - were you able to salvage the repair? Hopefully the customer is understanding.
Chuck
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Post by toiv0 on Mar 21, 2017 18:37:34 GMT -5
I agree on repairs you never know, I tell anyone up front of the worse case senerio. Yep I wouldn't poop for a week until my butt came unclenched. I am sorry it happened to you, its not a good thing or feeling. Wondering on the womans response. What do you think the metal is? Pot metal? Pewter?
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Post by radio on Mar 21, 2017 18:54:31 GMT -5
Yikes - were you able to salvage the repair? Hopefully the customer is understanding. Chuck Thankfully just the area where it was previously sized melted, so it just took more gold than I had originally estimated. I still haven't figured out how the He** he used solder to fill in the gap on the second band! Nothing else could have low enough melting point to blow out with indirect heat. If it were Gold, the side I was actually working on would have melted way before the other one!
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Post by radio on Mar 21, 2017 19:03:05 GMT -5
I agree on repairs you never know, I tell anyone up front of the worse case senerio. Yep I wouldn't poop for a week until my butt came unclenched. I am sorry it happened to you, its not a good thing or feeling. Wondering on the womans response. What do you think the metal is? Pot metal? Pewter? The ring it's self was undoubtedly gold, but who knows what he used to size it with. I have done work for this client before, so she trusts me with her jewelry. When I told her what happened, and sent her a pic, her response was "The lousy little sh*t! Go ahead and fix it." I only charged her $20 above the original estimate just to cover the cost of the extra gold
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micellular
has rocks in the head
Rock fever is curable with more rocks.
Member since September 2015
Posts: 640
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Post by micellular on Mar 21, 2017 20:08:13 GMT -5
Glad you've got an understanding customer.
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metalsmith
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 1,537
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Post by metalsmith on Mar 22, 2017 1:07:34 GMT -5
Thought this might turn out the whole thing was plated. Sorry for your moment of abject terror.
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Post by rockjunquie on Mar 22, 2017 9:48:54 GMT -5
What an OH CRAP moment! Glad you had such an understanding client. Nice people don't suck. I have a question for you: I have a diamond ring that I suspected was white gold. It is an antique of the Deco era. At some point, the ring was cut off and another was soldered on. The solder, under magnification, was bubbly and coarse looking. My first thought was that the original was platinum and that they cut that off sold it and replaced it with gold. Is that possible? It is not silver or pot metal. It's a beautiful ring and I got it pretty cheap, so I don't mind, but I have always wondered if something like that could be done.
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NDK
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 9,440
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Post by NDK on Mar 22, 2017 11:32:50 GMT -5
Nice save Arlen. Although you made less on the repair than you should have, it will repay itself in spades.
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Post by radio on Mar 22, 2017 16:10:36 GMT -5
What an OH CRAP moment! Glad you had such an understanding client. Nice people don't suck. I have a question for you: I have a diamond ring that I suspected was white gold. It is an antique of the Deco era. At some point, the ring was cut off and another was soldered on. The solder, under magnification, was bubbly and coarse looking. My first thought was that the original was platinum and that they cut that off sold it and replaced it with gold. Is that possible? It is not silver or pot metal. It's a beautiful ring and I got it pretty cheap, so I don't mind, but I have always wondered if something like that could be done. No way to tell without seeing it in person. I have seen repairs done with about every type of solder you can imagine. It's pretty common for the inexperienced to use "silver bearing solder" to repair jewelry or size rings as it flows at very low temps. I have even seen yellow Gold rings brazed and silver solder on white gold, so no telling what one will run into. Believe it or not, I have actually had sterling pieces brought to me for repair that someone had tried to repair using lead solder. Every time I think I have seen it all, something completely off the wall surprises me.
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Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on Mar 22, 2017 16:13:16 GMT -5
Wow, what a nightmare!
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Post by pghram on Mar 24, 2017 15:55:20 GMT -5
Did you snap a photo of the completed repair? I would love to see it now that you have made it right.
Peace,
Rich
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2017 22:24:13 GMT -5
Yikes - were you able to salvage the repair? Hopefully the customer is understanding. Chuck Thankfully just the area where it was previously sized melted, so it just took more gold than I had originally estimated. I still haven't figured out how the He** he used solder to fill in the gap on the second band! Nothing else could have low enough melting point to blow out with indirect heat. If it were Gold, the side I was actually working on would have melted way before the other one! Could he have used gold filled?
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Post by radio on Mar 25, 2017 8:16:14 GMT -5
Did you snap a photo of the completed repair? I would love to see it now that you have made it right. Peace, Rich Sort of. I took a quick pic of both bands one the soldering was done, but completely forgot to take one after the filing, sanding and polishing. If the repair isn't invisible under 3X, it goes back on the soldering block. I have learned over the years from repairing shoddy repairs done by others that if you can see the join, there is a better than average chance that join will break at some point. Several times a year I have folks bring me rings to repair that have broken cleanly at the join.
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Post by radio on Mar 25, 2017 8:23:37 GMT -5
Thankfully just the area where it was previously sized melted, so it just took more gold than I had originally estimated. I still haven't figured out how the He** he used solder to fill in the gap on the second band! Nothing else could have low enough melting point to blow out with indirect heat. If it were Gold, the side I was actually working on would have melted way before the other one! Could he have used gold filled? No, I work with GF pretty often and it doesn't melt at low temps like this did. The ball that rolled up on the end of the cut is clearly solder, but why he did that just boggles my mind. He clearly has excellent soldering skills to use solder to fill a gap that size!
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Post by toiv0 on Mar 25, 2017 9:07:01 GMT -5
if you don't have any gold solder I heard you can use a lower karat gold instead?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2017 9:47:20 GMT -5
Could he have used gold filled? No, I work with GF pretty often and it doesn't melt at low temps like this did. The ball that rolled up on the end of the cut is clearly solder, but why he did that just boggles my mind. He clearly has excellent soldering skills to use solder to fill a gap that size! He casted it in place.
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Post by bobby1 on Mar 30, 2017 22:05:24 GMT -5
I lived in the Bay Area for many years so I got saddled with quite a few pieces of jewelry that the electrical engineer husband figured he could solder it back together with lead solder. The lead dissolves gold just like mercury does. I had to manually scrape all the solder out of the piece with absolutely no lead solder remaining in the piece and rebuild the damaged places with gold. What a nightmare! Bob
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