I decided that a great way to get back into stonecutting after a month layoff would be to make a bunch of beads. I have lots of preforms cut and drilling comes next.Little elves using my shop left me with no bits so a round of soldering commenced.The bits which are stainless steel tubes needed to be soldered to a part of the machine called the horn. I have a bunch of horns so I usually solder a half dozen at a time.one horn was still on the drill and packlithic could not get it off so she had to wheel me over in the wheelchair and I reached way up with the wrench and loosened the horn.Nice to feel useful.Next all old grit and dirt are brushed off the end of the horns with a stainless steel brush so that they are not incorporated into the fresh solder.I line the horns up in a row and put flux on the new bits after cleaning them with the stainless brush. The torch is using just mapp gas pro which is inferior to the old mapp gas as it seems t be dirtier and has less btu per unit volume of gas.The end of the horn has a depression drilled in it called the pot .The entire pot and it's silver solder and drill bit stub contents must be thoroughly heated so that the worn drill bit may be removed when the solder melts.The torch never leaves the horn end until the entire bit replacement process is over.Silver solder is now introduced into the pot until the pot is full.I then clean the top of the full pot with flu.The cleaned and fluxed drill bit is then inserted into the jaws of a pair of linesman pliers . The bit is then held above the pot until it has preheated a bit, about 15 seconds at an inch above the pot and flame.If the bit is inadvertently heated to the point it shows color it must be disposed of as it will be too brittle to drill with for long. The torch is lowered down the horn tip as the new bit is lowered into the molten medium grade silver solder.As the flame is lowered it also must be pointed up to encourage the solder to climb the bit so as to ensure a good joint. The pliers keep the bit in alignment until the solder cools and hardens., about 15 seconds.During this time the flame is moved to the net horn to begin the process over.Now we can have happy elves again.