I have spent at least 3 hours today soldering and yesterday I probably spent another 2.  I am soldering the decorative rings on the second chasing & repousse canister I am making. I finished the first two rings I started yesterday and I also finished the second two (There are rings at the top/bottom of each piece and on the lid and the body where the two halves meet)

The primary purpose of the two canisters is of course to hold my chasing & repousse tools. But the other goals of these projects were to:

• use a lapped seam on one canister
• use a keyed seam on the other canister
  
• make a post slide and twist locking mechanism
• improve my soldering skills.

I have to admit that I have never been good at soldering. Part of it is my fear of getting burned.

I spent two summers in college doing welding and brazing (mostly with copper and aluminum) and I got caught in a torch "explosion". The torch was not put on the hose correctly by someone else and then when I lit it, there were flames  everywhere and it started to melt the hose. I did not get badly burned but I certainly got singed.  

I am not afraid of fire nor do I have a problem with my little butane torch, or when I am annealing with my propane/air torch; my problems happen when I am using big torches and soldering. I don't like getting my hands near the flame to apply the solder.   

As a result, when I am soldering big pieces I usually get solder everywhere because I won't hold my hands near the flame and then they start shaking and I just want to get it over with and have bad heat control.

Over the past 2 months that i have been working on these canisters (with Deb's help) I have learned that:

• The piece won't melt right way.
• Use lots of flux and learn when it gets glossy and up to temperature
• Place a few pieces of solder on the joint so you know when the piece is hot enough and the solder will flow. 
• You can move the flame to the side to place more solder. 
• How to feed the solder in using the stick soldering method (and if you aren't nervous, it wont shake and get ALL over the place)
• Control the heat and you really can see the solder flow down the joint
• GO SLOW and BREATH.

And today I have to say I did an excellent job. I won't have a massive amount of solder to clean up and I stick fed almost all of it. Right now the halves of the canister are in the pickle but below is a picture of my left hand showing the result of my time at the soldering bench.

Saturday I completed Intro to Blacksmithing at the Vista Forge. I can now join the CBA and sign up for Blacksmithing 1.
I have a picture of my 3 items - Blacksmith Tongs, Steak Turner, and BBQ Tongs and I will add it to this post but later in the week.

Yesterday I had another session with Deb and sorry but no pictures as we got too busy and I did not take in process pictures, but I will try to post a picture or two of where I ended (again later). What I worked on is also on my ever shrinking and growing metals to-do list.

I did make major progress not only on making my canisters (to hold my chasing & repousse tools) but in learning how to solder big volumes of copper.

I have the top and bottom soldered on the two halves of the first canister. We also have all four rings decorative rings soldered on. There is a ring at each end of the two halves(lid and body of the canister) and we have the rings at the ends of each, where the two halves will meet and lock. We did not get to the locking mechanism (a peg and twisting ).I have to clean up the solder from all of this but I can take the first one with me to my class in 3 weeks.  Then when I go to Debs in June, we will finish the locking mechanism.

I also had the sheet and prepped to start another canister so we soldered the sheets (lid and body) into cylinders and have the top and bottom plates done as well. By June, I should have the 4 rings made and if possible soldered on each piece.

FYI the first canister has the lid slightly larger in diameter than the base section and it slides over part of the base wall. The pegs will be soldered to the inside the lid walls , 180 degrees apart and just above the ring at the bottom of the lid.  Then the slots  (L shaped) for the pegs will be cut in the base wall above the top ring on the base. The lid will be aligned in the upright part of the L and slide downward until the lid ring meets the (upper) base ring. Then the lid will be turned so the pegs move into the horizontal section of the L.

Because the lid is slightly larger in diameter than the base, it does not give a smooth transition along the body, It looks like a stacked pillar. This is why I started the second canister. The lid and the base ARE the same diameter and the rings where they meet will be flush when they meet with just a small groove between them.  It will have the same peg locking mechanism but we will solder a short (height) ring inside the lid and the pegs will be inside the base but work the same way.

When I post the pictures it might make more sense but I think this is a pretty good description.