Silver Smithing on Food Stamp Budget

Here's some ideas:

plumber's propane torch from hardware store, plus a couple fuel tanks.
charcoal block or fire brick for soldering surface.
harbor freight tongs, tweasers, third hand.
second-hand small crock pot
an acid for pickling metal. traditional pickling acid, or if you can't afford it, use diluted muratic acid, or vinegar.
pair of copper tongs.
set of bastard files
set of fine jewelry files
sand paper in various grits
metal shears
round, flat, needle smooth jaw pliers.

Hmmm...

All that available at harbor? I have an old crock pot.

Hey Liz what's pH down?

I shall and thank you!:cool:

We use pH Down, too, from pool department of Home Depot. I use one heaping tablespoon in our mini-crock pot. Sunshine Cloth is a tad better than the Pro Pads. Both good.

Needle nose files from Harbor Freight. Lots of ok stuff at Harbor Freight, but not their mini-butane torch. Don't get a plastic torch.

Your old crock pot should work. You can get a $10 mini-crock pot from Bed Bath and Beyond. Brand is Tru. It's small, about the size of two hamburger buns stacked.

I'd also suggest a fire extinguisher, and a long leather apron (Rio), which saves you the trouble of crawling under your work bench.

A flash light is also handy for finding small pieces of metal on the floor.

Hmmm, a jewelers saw and blades, and bench pin with anvil, mini-butane torch (not for casting).

Reverse tweezers third-hand.

All this and the above sounds like a lot, but the items are small and would fit in a box. Good ventilation.

Good luck! It's fun.

Would oxy/acetylene torch work or is that too much?

Prince silver puff from Monster Slayer is hands down the best polishing thing I have found. It's almost like a ladies makeup puff, but impregnated with the polishing compound. One will easily last me 6 months polishing all the items in my two 6 foot retail display cases every couple of weeks. One puff would likely last the home user at least several years.

Cross lock tweezers are an indispensable item as is a solder pick

Instead of a third hand, go to a pottery shop and buy a K-26 kiln insulating brick, then to wally world for a small box of straight pins. The K-26 isn't a red fire brick, but a soft, white ceramic of some sort and is the best soldering block you can buy and is even better than a charcoal brick. Use the pins stuck in the brick to hold your work and the brick reflects the heat back into the piece and doesn't act like a heat sink like third hands will do. When the surface gets a bit rough or crumbled, take it outside and scrub it on the sidewalk or a concrete block to restore the surface.

You will need a set of small 6 inch files from HF and some silicone carbide sandpaper in an assortment of grits starting at 400-600 and up to 1,000-1,200. I use tapered sanding sticks with pre cut sanding belts, but you can get by with sand paper and reworked popsicle or craft sticks. Silver is kind of like woodworking. you have to go through some progressively finer sanding to get tool marks and scratches out. If not, you will end up with a satin finish instead of a mirror bright shine on the silver. If you are having trouble with fire scale (and you will) you can use a boric acid/alcohol mix, but this is flammable and can be quite hazardous if spilled and ignited. A bit more expensive, but better solution is Stop-Ox or similar product

If using the small crock pot, don't forget to unplug it when you are away from the bench overnight. The water for the PH down will evaporate pretty quickly even with the lid on and the pot could crack. I refresh mine with distilled water and one batch lasts a long time with me pickling several pieces daily

Zam is my favorite polish for silver and even works wonderfully on Turquoise. This is on a dual spindle buffing machine though and red rouge is hard to beat for hand polishing. Messy, but good

Sterling from Rio seems different from one order to another, so I use Sante Fe Jewelers supply and Indian jewelers supply for just about everything I buy.  Super customer service and you are a name and not just an order number

good luck and looking forward to seeing some works in progress