Part 2 - The Elements
You Will Need: A fire brick, a turntable, a cotter pin, flux, steel tweezers, brass tweezers, a blowtorch, a soldering probe, pickle, a pickling unit and copper tweezers
In order to solder the silver clay coins to the back plates we are going to use the sweat soldering technique.
First make sure that your coin is sitting completely flat on your silver sheet, then place your fire brick onto your turntable and place a cotter pin in the middle of your fire brick.
Balance the first of your silver sheets on the cotter pin and paint it generously with flux. Place your coin upside down nearby and paint the back with flux too.
Use your steel tweezers to place four pieces of hard silver solder onto the sheet, making sure they’re equally spaced apart and underneath where the coin will go.
Turn on your blowtorch and begin the heat the silver sheet evenly. If, when the flux bubbles it moves the pieces of solder too far off course simply push them back into place with your soldering probe. As soon as the solder melts, take your torch away and use your brass tweezers to place the coin onto the silver sheet.
Continue to heat the piece evenly all over until the solder re-runs and you can see a shiny solder line all the way around the join between the coin and the back plate.
Use your brass tweezers to quench it in cold water, and pop it in the pickle.
Repeat this process with all six of your coins.