Applying to join this forum, you HAVE to activate your membership in YOUR email in the notice you recieve after completing application process. No activation on your part, no membership.

Lapidaryforum.net

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome new members & old from the Lapidary/Gemstone Community Forum. Please join up. You will be approved after spam check & you must manually activate your acct with the link in your email

Congratulations to Bobby1 and his Brazilian Agate Cab!

 www.lapidaryforum.net

Another cabochon contest coming soon!

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Silver vs. Aluminum  (Read 1403 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Neural

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 161
  • Opal Addict
Silver vs. Aluminum
« on: December 16, 2018, 08:48:44 PM »

This ..doesn't really fit in any one specific category, so here it is:

I still have all of my silversmithing tools.  Torch, magnetic polisher, etc.

is there any form of cross contamination issues I'd need to be concerned with if I were to use them on Aluminum?
I'm leaning back towards making jewelry again, but this time with aluminum.   Thought hit me that I could clean blank pieces up really well with a run in the magenetic polisher, but I'm unsure about mixing the steel pins and aluminum.

If anyone knows of any problems for things like that, I'd love to hear it.

Hope you all are well and that you have a great holiday season and Christmas this year!
Logged
OpalOpalOpalOpalOpalOpalOpalOpalOpalOpalOpal

brentnewton

  • Guest
Re: Silver vs. Aluminum
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2019, 10:09:02 AM »

Well its kinda an older post, but no one answered ... so let me take a stab at it.  The answer is yes and no :).  This may be a longer post .. cos there are a lot of bases to be covered.  Can you use the same equipment ... yes, but if you are trying to move between silver and al .... no.  You really don't want to get any al in on or around your silver - especially soldering (more on that later) ... al just clogs up files .... quick.  Its sticky.  If you have been doing silver ... clean out your sweeps drawer before you do al ... or you'll ruin your sweeps if you care about that.  IU mostly don't care ... my sweeps have silver, gold, steel (saw blades), copper, titanium .... no al :).  I think ... you mostly have to give sweeps away ... LOL.  There are a few places that will take them for charity.  I have ... used a magnet to get the blades out ... and panned them out and melted them in a big gob .... but then you have no idea what you have. I used to try to keep sterling separate so I could melt it down and make wire ... but then I started switching between argentium and standard sterling ... and again, you don't know what you have.  I do try to keep gold scrap separate so I can make wire or sheet out of it ... so the short answer is if you are going to totally switch to al and not between silver and al ... clean everything up really good and have at it.  Only ... I'm not sure you are going to have much luck with al unless you are wire wrapping.  You can't really solder it with a torch ... industrially I think they use TIG.  You could use mechanical connections like rivets .... I'm not sure its going to work like you want it to.   If you are trying to save some coin ... take a look at nickel silver.  I hate the way it works ... but it can be soldered with silver solders.  Just ... my 2 cents.
Logged

VegasJames

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 470
Re: Silver vs. Aluminum
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2019, 07:29:00 PM »

Another issue is that dissimilar metals in the presence of moisture and electrolyte such as sweat can create a galvanic response eating away at the less reactive metal.
Logged

brentnewton

  • Guest
Re: Silver vs. Aluminum
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2019, 05:52:18 AM »

Vegasjames ... lol ... a pet peeve of mine :). I just cringe when I see copper and silver together, especially in a ring.  Supposedly the noble metals won't do it .. so I do mix gold and silver.  I think most of the serious mokoume gane (never said I could spell) folks have stopped using any allow with copper as a base.  There have apparently been some horror stories about selling wedding rings that slowly self destruct after a few years ... like many marriages .. lol.
Logged

finegemdesigns

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 216
    • finegemdesigns
Re: Silver vs. Aluminum
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2019, 08:20:01 AM »

Vegasjames ... lol ... a pet peeve of mine :). I just cringe when I see copper and silver together, especially in a ring.  Supposedly the noble metals won't do it .. so I do mix gold and silver.  I think most of the serious mokoume gane (never said I could spell) folks have stopped using any allow with copper as a base.  There have apparently been some horror stories about selling wedding rings that slowly self destruct after a few years ... like many marriages .. lol.

lol! You use the ring to time your marriage. Ring falls off, OK time for divorce.
 :coffee1:
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.093 seconds with 36 queries.