Solder melting through silver

[purplepepper8]

Hey, I was making a piece which involved soldering 18k red gold wires to a Sterling silver dome. Most of them worked out fine, but for a couple of them the solder would burn through the silver and disappear rather than flow on top of it. I was using 18k red easy solder but layer tried with 18k yellow and with silver solder and none of them would flow. As you can see from the phot these holes form where I put the chip. Any idea what is going on/ what I can do to successfully solder the wires on? Thank you

 

[mtlctr]

Repickle & try again. reclean the wires with mild abrasive before fluxing.
remember the gold even with a higher melting point is much thinner so it‘s collapsing before the silver is hot enough for the solder to flow.

 

[purplepepper8]

Repickle & try again. reclean the wires with mild abrasive before fluxing.
remember the gold even with a higher melting point is much thinner so it‘s collapsing before the silver is hot enough for the solder to flow.

I tried cleaning with abrasives and pickling.
Yes the gold does have a chance to melt sooner but I even tried sweating the solder onto the silver and it still forms these holes

 

[Victorvile]

The zinc in the solder is alloying itself with the (thin) gold,before the solder flows.

 

[Chujybear]

Silver solder will flow at a lower temp than gold solder

 

[Goldjockey]

Silver solder will flow at a lower temp than gold solder

Correct! For gold to silver, try #56 silver solder on clean surfaces and use plenty of borax based flux (I prefer “Handy Flux” from Rio Grande). Heat smoothly and gradually until the solder flows, and as soon as you have a good joint remove heat, as overheating will cause exactly the same problem you’re experiencing now.

 

[silverchip]

Well if you would've just used silver solder you wouldn't have ad any troubles to begin with.

 

[purplepepper8]

The zinc in the solder is alloying itself with the (thin) gold,before the solder flows.

I thought so, but even sweat soldering isn't working

 

[purplepepper8]

Well if you would've just used silver solder you wouldn't have ad any troubles to begin with.

Yeah good to know for the future. Thank you

 

[purplepepper8]

Correct! For gold to silver, try #56 silver solder on clean surfaces and use plenty of borax based flux (I prefer “Handy Flux” from Rio Grande). Heat smoothly and gradually until the solder flows, and as soon as you have a good joint remove heat, as overheating will cause exactly the same problem you’re experiencing now.

Ok will try thank you