Silver Soldering and Hinges

In my last post I showed my progress on the casket panels and the items I bought for silver soldering, ever since Castine I have been thinking a lot about the hinges I made for the casket, I was never happy with them, knowing that although they were as thin as I wanted, I also knew they weren't very strong and that has bugged me all along. Just to prove it to myself I pulled on one of them just now and yes..... as you can see....

It didn't take a lot of force to pull that apart. Now in Castine, in Bill Robertson's class when we made the hinges for the bone chest, I saw that this time round, he used a technique that I haven't seen before, he silver soldered a tube of metal to a flat piece of metal. This makes for a strong joint and what I was after, a thinner hinge roll. Everything I know about hinge making I learned from Bill, two years ago when I received the scholarship for Guild School I took his hinge class (ha, it seems funny now but when I received the class brochure way back in 2010 and saw the hinge class and was interested in it, I had to Google to find some info on Bill as I have never heard of him before), in any case, in that first year I learned to make hinges with the basic fold over hinge barrel that many people use, but you are limited by the thickness of the metal in how thin you can go, especially when you are working on really small items like the casket or hidden hinges like the ones in my sewing table that needs to recess into already thin wood. I have never silver soldered before, but was determined to learn and so..... today I made my first hinge after a few days of experimenting, struggling, searching the internet and putting on my thinking cap, I love finding solutions for problems.

For the caskets I wanted a really thin hinge that would almost not be visible once the needlepoint has been attached. Now where to find a small metal tube.... syringe needles of course (some of my USA and Europe friends says you can only get them on prescription in those countries), well, here in SA you can buy a box with a hundred and no questions asked, in the pharmacy I bought them they are in one of the aisles, together with things like plasters, bandages, etc.

I bought a honeycomb solder block on Saturday, something I am really grateful for now, as it has holes!!! I am using a needle with an outside diameter of 0.6mm and an inside diameter of 0.3mm, keeping it from riding up onto the flat metal piece proved to be a problem, I think the flux just pulls it onto the metal when everything starts to heat up. In this photo the needle is tied down with some wire, the piece of metal (0.2mm thick tinned metal sheet from K&S metals that I had in my stash) is held in place by a piece of brass, the flux is already applied and three pieces of silver solder is on top of the flux. The tool shop gave me Easyflo flux together with an Easyflo 40 silver rod, ha, cutting that rod into very small pieces is another story, it is rather hard.

After the soldering is done, it needs to be cleaned, the instructions for this specific flux is just soaking in hot water and brushing, easy and no chemicals involved. Oh, yes, I did struggle with the heating too, this solder melts between 650 and 710 degrees Celsius, in doing some research a bushy, pulsing flame was recommended, when I tried that things got easier and I loved seeing the solder melt and run along the joint, in the beginning I also used too much solder, well, you learn a lot by trying.

All the flux leftovers has been cleaned off, now for some filing to get it nice and smooth, oh yes, be careful, that needle point is rather sharp, after all, it was made for piercing skin, as if I don't stab myself enough with needles when I do petit point ;-)

Two pieces ready to be sawed and made into hinges.

I used some jewelry wire for a hinge pin, since it bends fairly easy, I first put in a 0.3mm drill bit to line everything up nicely and then pushed the wire in. Tomorrow I want to find out if you get music wire in 0.3mm and if one of the hobby shops here carry them to use for hinge pins.

Tins are a great source of free thin metal, so far I had no luck in finding metal shim, except in bulk, when I need thicker I will have to buy a life time supply, every place I have phoned so far denies having any knowledge of where to find thin metal, you can almost hear them think "crazy woman"!!!

I made my hinge a bit bigger than needed, it is just easier to handle while soldering, here I have cut it down to the right size, the metal is thin enough to cut easy with all purpose scissors, I only polished the hinge barrel as the rest of the hinge will be covered and a scratchy surface will be better for gluing the petit point panels on.

I decided to make a recess in the casket where the hinge is going, I am really happy with how this turned out, I did tug on this hinge too and it is nice and strong. Thank you Bill for introducing this technique to me.

For all my British and European readers, Bill and some of the other IGMA teachers are teaching a few great classes just before the Kensington show in London next year, don't wait too long in deciding, I am pretty sure these classes will fill up quickly, go and have a look here.

Enjoy the rest of your week
Elga
PS: I am going to play with making brass hinges in this way too, found a 1mm brass tube in a hobby shop here.

Hinge Making.

After a few trails and errors I finally managed to make a set of working hinges, I used 0.010" thick brass sheet to cut the hinges from. The double-folded brass sheet is mounted on a scrap piece of plywood with double side tape for stability while cutting out with the jewelers saw. My hinge is just a bit less than 1/8" wide by about 1/4' long including the barrel tabs.

The first part cut out. 

The two parts fitting nicely together after a bit of filing with very fine files that are generally available from jewelry making supply shops.

I got so engrossed in the task that I forgot to take anymore photos!!!! I struggled with rolling the hinge barrel small enough, the hinges I made in Castine are big ones for Castle doors so the wire I used there were thicker than the 0.020" thick wire I needed to use here. I bought this little jewelers round nose pliers and between my husband and I we filed the one side down to 0.035" thick, I would like it even thinner but I am worried it will start bending and breaking off. Next I beveled the edges of the hinges and polished them with silicon nail files.

The finished hinges installed, since the table top is so thin I am not going to use nails, so they are glued on with epoxy glue. I also offset the hinge leaves so that I only needed to rout out a very small section of the table top at a deeper level, since the hinges and support stand needs to sink completely into the table top so that it can lie flat when the tabletop is closed.

Now I still need to make the hinges to join the table top to the table itself. I found this tutorial the other day when I was looking for some info on making hinges and just about a half hour ago this one from Karin Corbin that shows another way of rolling the barrel, something I am going to try, I am sure I have some very thin music wire here somewhere. Oh and if you ever want to try making such small hinges, I would recommend a good dose of perseverance ;-)

Elga

Castine Tall Clock Finished!!!!!

I finally finished the Tall Clock that I made in Carol Hardy's class at IGMA's Guild School last year.

A close-up of the clock face that consist of 3 layers of steel and brass with the hands that Carol provided with the clock.

I decided to try and make it a working clock, it took a lot of effort and thinking but I got it done. I had to cut away the wood and glue the wrist watch movement directly to the back of the face, the wood was too thick to allow the pin for the hands to stick through to the front.

The hood can come off just like the real antiques so that you can work on the movement if necessary, in my case to replace the battery.

I made hinges for the hood door that looks like real tall clock hinges to allow the door to swing open freely and not hit the turned columns on the sides of the door.

Here are the hinges being made, since the door is too thin too handle any nails being pushed into them, I extended the hinge, bend it and sandwiched the top part between the two wood layers of the door.

A close-up of the hinge.

And finally the hinges that I made in Bill Robertson's class, without this class I wouldn't have had a clue about how to make authentic hinges for the clock. And in case you are wondering the hinges are sawn out by hand with a jewelers saw. The one in the bottom is finished, it was dipped in an ageing fluid and then heated with a torch, I plan on framing them as is in a frame, maybe together with the class description. And these are big enough for Castle doors, I thought making big ones would be easier, haha, it took me the whole 12 hours to make these two, the first day I broke more blades than doing any actual sawing!!!!

I learned so much at Castine last year and am so looking forward to learning more this year!!!!

Elga

PS: Dorien asked about jewelers saws, if you google images you will find loads of photos of jewelers saws and items that has been made using the saw.