Question: silver wire inlaid into brass

[Bama]

I am currently trying to inlay sterling wire into a brass key fob. The wire that I have inlaid into a channel seems to be staying where I put it but in the areas where I am trying to fill a space by laying wire side by side is giving me fits. I raised teeth in the brass to grab the silver wire but it does not want to stay in place.

I backed the brass fob with thermo lock but I am getting some dishing of the brass fob which I think may be part of my problem.

I also think the brass teeth are laying back down when I am trying to seat the wire.

These areas I am trying to fill are faily small so I was wondering if it would be better to try to silver solder a small piece of wire in the void?

I am also wondering if I am annealing the wire correctly. I am heating the wire to a dull red then letting air cool, is this correct?

Here are the problems I think I have with this project.

I am trying to inlay in a metal that is as soft or softer than my inlay material.

I possibly do not have my brass backed well enough to not flex when I am seating the wire.

I am not sure if I have the silver wire annealed well enough.

any help would be appreciated

 

[KSnyder]

cherry red for the silver, then immediately in water. soft as a noodle. If the channel is undercut properly then I would think the soft silver should go right in. Brass is probably a bit harder.

 

[Brian Marshall]

Use fine silver - not sterling.

DO make sure you have a solid support system.



Brian

 

[jerrywh]

I repeat what Brian said. Use pure silver. Teeth will not hold up in brass you must use the parrallel wire process. Or you can put the inlay in in small pieces on different levels and just use undercuts.

 

[John B.]

Amen Brian and Jerry advise, pure .999 silver only.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

I don't know what this fob looks like or what shape it is...........if it has a flat back then cement it to a solid peice of steel.

Any sping or bounce in the work can play absolute havoc when inlaying. As Brian said, make sure you have a solid support system. Something that is rock hard.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[KCSteve]

I had similar problems inlaying a copper section into a hobo nickel. On the first try I got it almost done.
:beat up:

On the next try I did the parallel wire technique Jerry mentioned - cut the whole cavity down half way, then cut down the rest of the way wire by wire, giving each one fresh new teeth to work with.

 

[Bama]

thanks guys

Sterling is what I started with and I have most of it in place. I just have a couple of little voids that I am having problems with filling.

I will use fine silver on the next project. This is just a practice piece and belive me it is my first project for wire inlay and it sounds like I made life hard using the sterling wire. ai am learning a lot though and it has been a fun project.

I guess that since no one advised to solder that is not what to do so I will scratch that one off the list.

The fob is one of the GRS rectangular fobs. I think my biggest problem has been not having a hard enough backing to set the wire. I will work on that problem tonight.

I have found this little project to be quite a challange and it sounds like I chose the wrong wire for the project. Oh well that is part of the learning process. Doing things the hard way seems to come natural for me, HA.

I will try to post pictures when finished, if I can get that wire to stay in place.

 

[KCSteve]

Look at it this way: if you can set sterling wire into brass you'll have no problems inlaying 24k Gold into steel.