Solder and silicone bakeware
This week I went to Michael's for the first time in a long time, and they had a sale on bakeware.
One thing I have noticed is silicone molds for baking are really popular.
They come in all kinds of shapes nowadays.
I don't bake, but I like to melt things in them.
They are good for up to 400 degrees, which can handle candy, baked Fimo clay, and even solder.
The silicone molds I like best, are the ones used for fondant or candy.
I picked up these two molds.
The big one was about $7.
The small one is for laying a pattern on top of cupcakes. It was 2.99!
The more obvious thing would be to press Fimo clay into the molds, but I'm not into clay right now.
Right away I had to try melting solder into it.
My soldering iron had a lot of built-up melted plastic from making Sparkle balls last winter.
It left a syrupy residue on the mold, but after a while I think it will wear away.
As usual, the solder wanted to go everywhere but where I wanted.
I thought of using this copper tape to hold the liquid metal in one place.
The copper tape is supposed to help you place solder around something like a glass pendant.
You kind of wrap it like a picture frame around a piece of glass. Then melt solder onto it.
But all the times I've used the copper tape in that way, the solder peels away.
(I used flux, too...)
Here, I made a loop of copper tape around one of the patterns on the big mold:
Using the copper tape had a better effect at restraining the solder.
This is a different attempt:
Here is the flip side of that one:
You can see the syrupy plastic residue that was coming off the soldering iron from a previous project.
In the end, all of the artifacts I made were still too blobby to actually hang on a chain or as earrings.
They feel more like lead fishing weights.
Part of the problem is that the solder is not getting hot enough with the soldering iron.
It tends to build up, drop by drop, instead of spreading in a thin layer.
I am still too nervous to use a torch...
One thing I have noticed is silicone molds for baking are really popular.
They come in all kinds of shapes nowadays.
I don't bake, but I like to melt things in them.
They are good for up to 400 degrees, which can handle candy, baked Fimo clay, and even solder.
The silicone molds I like best, are the ones used for fondant or candy.
I picked up these two molds.
The big one was about $7.
The small one is for laying a pattern on top of cupcakes. It was 2.99!
The more obvious thing would be to press Fimo clay into the molds, but I'm not into clay right now.
Right away I had to try melting solder into it.
My soldering iron had a lot of built-up melted plastic from making Sparkle balls last winter.
It left a syrupy residue on the mold, but after a while I think it will wear away.
As usual, the solder wanted to go everywhere but where I wanted.
I thought of using this copper tape to hold the liquid metal in one place.
The copper tape is supposed to help you place solder around something like a glass pendant.
You kind of wrap it like a picture frame around a piece of glass. Then melt solder onto it.
But all the times I've used the copper tape in that way, the solder peels away.
(I used flux, too...)
Here, I made a loop of copper tape around one of the patterns on the big mold:
Using the copper tape had a better effect at restraining the solder.
This is a different attempt:
Here is the flip side of that one:
You can see the syrupy plastic residue that was coming off the soldering iron from a previous project.
In the end, all of the artifacts I made were still too blobby to actually hang on a chain or as earrings.
They feel more like lead fishing weights.
Part of the problem is that the solder is not getting hot enough with the soldering iron.
It tends to build up, drop by drop, instead of spreading in a thin layer.
I am still too nervous to use a torch...
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