Of Solder and Safety

• September 11th, 2005 • • supplies •

So I tried my hand at making some manner of jewelry this week. Materials include: solder, butane torch, jewelry fixtures, copper tape and computer boards. I can’t say I’m interested in posting a photo of my first few attempts as they succeeded in accomplishing very little! I’ve never worked with solder before; it’s an interesting substance. My only fear is burning the bejeezus out of my hand when some of that molten metal lands on it. Seriously, it’s only a matter of time. I’ve managed to burn or slice myself on every other dangerous appliance in the studio, so a solder burn can’t be far behind. You may insert the sound of me weeping in cringing anticipation here.

Aside from messing with solder, I am refurbishing the old screens recovered from Michael’s Mother’s studio. NOT a neat and tidy task: the rotting screen material was encrusted with decade-old masking tape and held in place with ancient nails. BLECH! My palms are sore from wrenching all of those old nails out with a screwdriver. Someone kindly hammered them flush with the wood. Despite all of my whining, I think they will turn out ok. The new fabric arrived last week so all I have to do is sand, fill and refinish the frames. Huzzah!

Speaking of safety! My father has a very important question he always asked me when I was working with a dangerous power tool. “How does the table saw know the difference between your hand and what you’re cutting?” He would ask. After careful pondering, I would reply, “It doesn’t.” He always nodded, “Exactly.” It’s still true today; I made the mistake of letting a metal right-angle pusher bar get too close to the table saw when trying to knock a scrap of wood out of the way. Immediately the bar was sucked into the saw, bent and promptly shot across the room, while another component was ripped off of the saw. I’m not sure the safety goggles would’ve helped had I been standing directly in front of the saw. Fortunately I always stand to the side and I ducked, whipped the saw’s power off avoiding any injury. Lesson boys and girls, it’s better to have chunks of wood fly about then to have a metal bar get sucked in. Now the right-angle and the damn saw are broken. At least I still have my health. And my eyes.

2 Responses to ' Of Solder and Safety '

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to ' Of Solder and Safety '.

1. thejessicat said,
   
   

   on September 12th, 2005 at 8:48 pm

   Wow! That sounds pretty dangerous. Glad you still have all your apendages! Here’s another helpful addage, now that you’re working with solder and butane torches: Very, very hot metal looks exactly like cold metal!
   And when you touch very, very hot metal, you usually hear or smell your flesh being seared BEFORE you feel it. And it feels kinda sticky. At least, it does before you notice the hurting…

2. Olivia said,
   
   

   on September 13th, 2005 at 6:33 am

   The hot metal vs. cold metal thing is EXACTLY why I decided it best to wear pants and close-toed shoes when working with the stuff.

   Amazing how hot metal loves to roll about like it’s water! Hopefully all of the burning myself with the hot-glue gun (not a craft gun, a REAL hot-glue gun) will dissuade me from hot metal burns.

Leave a reply