Selecting a metal, pouring ingots, cold working, annealing, and stress relieving procedures are identical to the fabricated sheet methods described.

Special Tips and Pointers

• To straighten stocks and wire: first, anneal and quench to soften; then, fasten one end and pull on the opposite end with tongs or draw bench until you feel a slight movement. Release pressure, and the piece should be straight.
• To help prevent pits when sizing, you need an absolute flush fit at the joint which should also be as clean as possible. Paste solder is not designed for sizing work and should not be used.
• You can request tempers other than what we stock when you place your order. Allow extra working days for us to ship.
• Reminder - Stress relieving product will greatly reduce the likelihood of stress corrosion cracking.

Seamless Tubing

• Seamless tubing is available in a variety of stock sizes in round, oval, and square. Tubing is used to manufacture large lightweight jewelry.
• Drawing down to a smaller outside diameter can be done simply by pointing the end, waxing or oiling the outside of the tube, and pulling through the desired dies on your draw plate. The wall thickness will increase slightly with each reduction.
  
• Too great a reduction in a single pass may collapse the tubing, so use care.
• The amount of work and annealing procedures are identical to fabricated sheet, please see this section.

Arboring of round tubing is done as follows:

• Anneal tubing.
• Insert a wire no greater than two-thirds the inside diameter of tubing.
• Gently pull the ends of the wire, so the tube wraps around the mandrel (Let the wire do the work).
• Remove the wire insert.
• The larger the tube diameter is, the larger the arbor must be.

Solder Tips

• Everyone has a method of soldering, but here are a few tips which have proven successful for us.
• When you receive your solders, use a scribe to mark the color on the bottom edge of one side and e solder type on the other. Start using the solder at the opposite edge from the scribe marks. This way when you get down to the smallest piece you will know what it is.
• Clean the sheet solder with pickle compound, then straight denatured alcohol.
  
• If the article has been worn, first run it through the ultrasonic cleaner. Then, clean with pickle compound and rinse. Coat with a boric acid/denatured alcohol solution. When using paste solder, apply the solder first, then the solution.
• Ignite the boric/alcohol solution to produce a protective glaze that inhibits oxidation.
• If sizing a ring, you should have a flush fit at the joint, which should be as clean as possible. Neglecting either of these steps will usually result in pits. Paste solder is not designed for sizing work.
• Apply proper heat to the article then to the piece of solder. When using paste solder, simply apply heat to the article. If solder is overheated, pits may result from burning off alloy additions.
• Apply "self pickling" flux as needed at the solder joint to induce solder flow (not needed for torch solder pastes).
• Solder flow can be stopped from flowing where you don't want it by using tripoli, yellow ochre, a graphite pencil, stop off, or garlic. To tell if a ring has been soldered, hit it with a torch flame until a light oxide forms; the solder will stand out. When performing multiple soldering operations on a piece, start with a high temperature solder (hard) for first operation, then move down in temperature (medium or easy) for subsequent soldering. To prevent flowing, first joint sizing of rings is generally done with hard solders. Minimize gaps between parts to be assembled (good fit).
• Always use a well-ventilated area, and make sure the solder you choose doesn't have a higher flow point than your articles (Some hard solders fall in this category). The law gives you more negative tolerance on soldered product, but our advice is to use plumb gold solders for the karat on which you are working.

Repair Solders

• Repair solders are essentially lower-karat plumb solders. Below is a guideline of common repair solder karats. If you want a repair solder, use our plumb solders in accordance with this guide.