Alan you are correct in that your tourch is hot enough for
soldering/welding but acetylene would be that last gas to use for
Platinum fabrication. The best gas would be hydrogen/oxygen the
next gas combonation would be propane/oxygen, then butane,
natural gas then the last on the list would be acetylene. This
is based on the risk of carbon pick-up. Acetylene can be used but
with excess oxygen to create a very oxidising flame. If you are
only soldering I would say that you would have no problem with
your setup, but you would need to use an oxidizing flame.
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As an example if you were going to cast an ounce of platinum,
you need to melt it in about 12 to 30 seconds to avoid exessive
carbon pick up. Your torch will eventually melt the metal but it
will take 30 minutes to do so. In order to achive such a fast
melt your torch has to be several degrees above the melting
point and this can only be achived by compressed systems. I use
65 lbs. oxygen and 5 lbs of propane to achive tempretures hot
enough to melt the platinum in 12 seconds to do my casting.
Platinum solidifies in 3 seconds after the heat is removed so
speed is crucial to get a complete casting.
Also, I've read that platinum is easily contaminated. Do I simply need a seperate soldering pad, or do I really need to get serious about keeping platinum away from other materials?
You should only use appropriate blocks for platinum soldering,
fused alumina holds up the best and takes tremendous amounts of
heat. Charcoal is carbon and will contaminate the metal. Use
the fused block only for Platinum work. Platinum does not get
contaminated as easily as reported but one must work cleanly to
avoid the contamination. Common sense should be used. Separate
bench or hand tools are over kill, but you should use a separate
soldering fused block, separate polishing buffs. Store in
plastic bag after use to avoid contamination. If you do
polishing at the bench some of the iron oxide can get onto the
soldering block then transfer to the metal. I recommend the use
of tungsten carbide spring tweezers to hold platinum while
soldering this metal is the only metal that we use that can take
the heat. Clean you files before use on platinum or just use a
set for it, I just clean mine.
Always wipe the rolls of you rolling mill before using it for
platinum and if drawing wire use a tungsten carbide drawplate,
these plates have polished holes and leave the drawn wire highly
polished. Do not use wax to lubricate the wire and use only for
platinum to avoid contamination. before annealing always place
the item into the pickle or a warm 10 percent nitric bath to
remove any trace of steel from the platinum. As I have said
before you must heat the platinum to brite-orange for 1 minute
per 1 millimeter thickness to ensure full annealing.
For more information, please visit melting furnace for platinum.
While soldering it is very important to remember to never use
flux with solders degrees and above or the seam will become
brittle due to flux contamination. Do not use binding wire
unless it is platinum. At the bright-orange color of heated
platinum it is hot enough to melt gold, silver or any other metal
which would then fuse onto the platinum. Silver contamination
will cause a lot of trouble with platinum.
Your best bet is to contact the Platinum Guild and ask Jurgen to
send you some of the handouts they supply to the trade. You can
also go to the Platinum web page pgi-platinum-tech.com and view
the technical books and sources there. AJM magazine is a great
resource to the trade it is filled with technical
You can go to their web site mjsa.plygon.net/ajm/. Gesswien has
a lot of these items and Elaine Corwin whom is online here, she
can send you some on supplies. I do not know their
web page link.
There is a whole lot of to gather I hope this will
help a little.
Edward J. Friedman
Senior Instructor The Revere Academy
Consultant
The company is the world’s best 5 kg tilting platinum melting furnace supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.