Modern jewelry welders in today’s small studio

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Jewelry welding technologies have been used in the industry for many years. Many of the first commercial welders were used to weld posts on the backs of earrings and other simple time saving operations. Fast forward to today, more capable and advanced versions are now very affordable and accessible to small jewelry studios. Undoubtably, the boom in permanent jewelry has helped push this valuable tool into the spotlight. There are a few types of jewelry welders currently on the market. However, for the sake of this article, we will focus on the pulse arc welder. Pulse arc welders use a fusion method involving electrical energy to produce welds. Using a tungsten electrode, an arc is generated when the grounded workpiece touches the electrode. The generated arc creates a high-temperature pulse of plasma that can melt metal creating a fusion of metals. During this process, a filler wire can also be used to add material to a weld. Welders of all types typically use an argon shielding gas to protect the welds from oxidation. Argon is an inert gas that is heavier than oxygen. A little puff of argon pushes the oxygen out of the weld area and makes for a cleaner weld and helps eliminate porosity. Argon is to welding as flux is to soldering. Why Not Solder? Having used a welder around four years now, I’ve become familiar with its operation. I currently own an Orion 200i and use it for a wide range of jewelry and jewelry tool manufacturing operations. Generally, when deciding on which joining process to use, I say, why not use both? Each process has its advantages depending on the job and both often shine when used together. Welding offers the jeweler a unique technology that accentuates the processes we already use. When looking into buying a welder, there are a few questions a business should ask themselves: 1) How will a welder fit into my workflow? Using welding in conjunction with soldering A welder can be used to tack (lightly attach) a complicated soldering operation into position, saving set up time and increasing the success of that operation. Combining solder and welding can yield very successful and timely results. A welder can also be used to create complex jewelry forms that may otherwise be out of reach using just a solder join. (explained further down) Operations without solder where the welder can be the primary joining tool.

• Re-tipping prongs by adding a filler material of the same purity
• Chain making and repair
• General jewelry repairs
• Permanent jewelry
• Pinning hinges or kinetic jewelry
• Ring sizing
• Making head pins
• Joining operations near heat sensitive stones
• Adding material and filling holes
• And everyone’s favorite, closing jump rings

(2)  How can I pay for it quickly? Quality welders can cost anywhere from $1k to over $8k depending on the model, size, and power output. That can be quite an investment of money for a small business or hobby goldsmith. In my own shop/studio I look at things from the perspective of versatility and cost effectiveness. I firmly believe that when you purchase specialty tools you should be charging your customers specialty fees associated with using those tools. Generally, I charge a $50 base welder fee on all repairs that utilize the welder. This includes turning on the welder and 10-15 ish welds. After 15 welds there is a reasonable sliding scale of price increase. The sliding scale considers the consumables that are continuing to be used as the welder is utilized. (There are always exceptions to this general rule). Using a specialized fee structure let’s look at how you can pay off your welder. Welder Cost: $2500 Shop Fee: $50 2500 divided by 50 = 50 Jobs Job 51 now pays for consumables and results in profit for your business. I don’t currently offer permanent jewelry, but it seems like getting 50 jobs during a few pop-up shows should be easy with the right marketing and venue selection, if you chose that route. Complex Constructions Simplified Order of operations are always an important consideration when constructing anything. Let’s simplify a complex looking necklace and break down how a welder can assist in enhancing your designs. The general construction of this necklace isn’t very complex. The complexity occurs when it comes to the stone setting. In this case the bezel setting is inside the hollow form and suspended. This piece was constructed from a sterling silver hemisphere (white) and a domed washer (red) of the same diameter. The stone is a relatively durable Ellensburg blue agate, but I have used this technique with opals as well. *Side note, the fine silver foxtail chain was constructed using a welder as well. The stone sits in a standard bezel and backplate (yellow) configuration (constructed by soldering). Once the stone setting was completed, a post was attached to the back of the backplate using solder. The stone is now set using a ball vice to hold the post. Notice the bottom hemisphere (white) has a hole the same size as the post. This will eventually accept stone setting. Once both domed components are constructed a welder is used to tack the hemisphere and the washer in four places. This is so when solder was flowed into the joint the two pieces wouldn’t misalign. Now soldered, the stone setting post is inserted into the bottom hole. The welder is then utilized to tack the post to the bottom of the hemisphere. Once firmly welded, the excess was removed using a flush cutter. The remainder of the post was then blended into the hemisphere using the welder to make a seamless joint. The finished technique should yield a result like this. Now that advanced welding technology is more accessible to our industry, we should be open to how it can help our businesses profit and thrive.