Solder Platinum Plus

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MushMaster

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Do any of you have experience in soldering Platinum Plus? If so, what solder do you use and at what propane/oxygen ratio? Thanks in advance!
 
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Do any of you have experience in soldering Platinum Plus? If so, what solder do you use and at what propane/oxygen ratio? Thanks in advance!
Do any of you have experience in soldering Platinum Plus? If so, what solder do you use and at what propane/oxygen ratio? Thanks in advance!
i inquired about this with the techs at Argen, they make a Co,Cr solder for pre soldering & they said to use a non borax, water soluble flux.
just curious, how do your casting fit?
My problem was not getting enough expansion on castings , they were way too tight even using straight liquid & increasing mixing times.
Thanks
 
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i inquired about this with the techs at Argen, they make a Co,Cr solder for pre soldering & they said to use a non borax, water soluble flux.
just curious, how do your casting fit?
My problem was not getting enough expansion on castings , they were way too tight even using straight liquid & increasing mixing times.
Thanks
Might need a different investment. It may not have an expansion window that encompases the CTE of that metal at casting temps.
 
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i inquired about this with the techs at Argen, they make a Co,Cr solder for pre soldering & they said to use a non borax, water soluble flux.
just curious, how do your casting fit?
My problem was not getting enough expansion on castings , they were way too tight even using straight liquid & increasing mixing times.
Thanks
Without diverging too far from the topic of this thread, we have the exact same findings here. We use Sherafina investment material with 100% expansion liquid and 4 ml less total liquid. (For Platinum Plus that is). At that point the fit is beautiful. Instead of increasing mixing times, perhaps you will find a better fit with keeping the same mixing times, just using a little less total liquid as well. Like JMN mentioned (for which thanks) we may try and use a different investment for the sake of getting more expansion closer to the recommended liquid/water ratio.

I will look into our solder and flux combo tomorrow. Currently experimenting with it and have a hard time getting the solder to flow. As it stands now we end up with a beautiful piece of oxidized modern art; just not a beautiful piece of soldered bridge structure ... yet! So if anyone has more experience, one and all ear here!
 
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Might need a different investment. It may not have an expansion window that encompases the CTE of that metal at casting temps.
JMN,yes, I have that sheet for the alloy too, it just says use a phosphate investment but offers no specific brand that they might have had success with.
I made a casting with platinum plus using DVA’s Cream press & another casting with Jensen Microstar.
both castings were so small they were unusable.
can you please offer a suggestion for an investment which offers more expansion or how to go about choosing the proper investment for this alloy? I’ve tried everything the & investment manufacturers have suggested.
Thanks again
 
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Without diverging too far from the topic of this thread, we have the exact same findings here. We use Sherafina investment material with 100% expansion liquid and 4 ml less total liquid. (For Platinum Plus that is). At that point the fit is beautiful. Instead of increasing mixing times, perhaps you will find a better fit with keeping the same mixing times, just using a little less total liquid as well. Like JMN mentioned (for which thanks) we may try and use a different investment for the sake of getting more expansion closer to the recommended liquid/water ratio.

I will look into our solder and flux combo tomorrow. Currently experimenting with it and have a hard time getting the solder to flow. As it stands now we end up with a beautiful piece of oxidized modern art; just not a beautiful piece of soldered bridge structure ... yet! So if anyone has more experience, one and all ear here!
AmsterDan,
I think the heavy oxide layer on this alloy might be the problem with getting the solder to readily flow. To reduce oxidation, after fluxing, try using sticky wax to assemble your bridge with. After investment has fully set, submerge in Very hot water to peel off sticky wax. Then trim bulk from investment & place in burnout oven. Only go up just hot enough to dry completely, maybe 700-800 deg. F with no hold. Remove from oven with torch ready. Keep flame in constant contact with joint as to not allow oxygen to contact joint. I’m guessing that the higher & longer burn out times used to eliminate the duralay or pattern resin that most Techs use might be contributing to oxide formation.
That is interesting about getting good fits using 4mm less liquid, it has been recommended to me by both the alloy & one of the investment manufacturers to use 1mm Extra liquid!??
 
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JMN,yes, I have that sheet for the alloy too, it just says use a phosphate investment but offers no specific brand that they might have had success with.
I made a casting with platinum plus using DVA’s Cream press & another casting with Jensen Microstar.
both castings were so small they were unusable.
can you please offer a suggestion for an investment which offers more expansion or how to go about choosing the proper investment for this alloy? I’ve tried everything the & investment manufacturers have suggested.
Thanks again
Keep on mind my metal casting days are about 5 years behind me, OK?

We were using GC FujiVest II for everything. In their IFU (on an admittedly cursory half glance) I didn't see a CTE listing. Call them. They should know what CTE it can handle.

One issue with this is the liquid is temperature sensitive. It crystalizes if it gets too cold, so you'll need some nice weather for a couple days at origin, destination, and delivery path to order it.

 
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Not of any help to OP, but just a casting video I received from Argen in my email this morning.
I guess their getting more and more orders for the metal, so they probably wanted to offer some help with a video link.

 
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Well, I have to say I would have failed casting that. Never heard of preheating the crucible being a requirement nor the torch having to be that clean. Not sure we ever cleaned ours aside from getting a new multi orifice tip and dancing around about it.

But why would you put the ring out before the metal is ready? It's just cooling at that point.
 
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I do pre heat my crucibles slightly by using the torch to heat up the funnel area and some of the side walls while it's in the cradle,
before I put my metal in the crucible.

As with you, I thought the cleaning was a bit much. I usually just use a torch tip cleaner once in awhile
to make sure the holes aren't getting clogged.

I also agree that placing the ring in the cradle before the metal is ready seems like a faux pas on their part, especially with
such a temperamental metal as PP. We could get by with that casing gold crowns, but I wouldn't do that with
HN or Noble, let alone a base metal ring.
 
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That is interesting about getting good fits using 4mm less liquid, it has been recommended to me by both the alloy & one of the investment manufacturers to use 1mm Extra liquid!??

This is for the Sherafina investent product:
IMG_20200313_114907910_HDR.jpg
 
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